Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 124

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 124

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Conclusion. - The movement of population in this town at differ- ent periods, from the time of its incorporation, is exhibited in the following statement : -

Population by United States census, 1840, . 2.650

66 1850, . . 3.274

" State census, 1855, . ·

3,498

66 " United States census, 1860, .

3,237

" State census, 1865, . . 3,367

" United States census, 1870, .

3,904

" State census,

1875, .

4,490

Its increase in wealth has been steady, and large enough to be beneficial. The signs of poverty are few, and, with its inexhaustible resources of sea and land, there seems to be no reason to fear that it will ever cease to be the abode of a contented people.

ROWLEY.

Rowley is a long and narrow township, in the north-easterly section of the county, thirty-two miles from Boston by the Eastern Railroad, which has a station about one-half a mile eastward from the village. It was incorporated, Sept. 4, 1639, and then embraced what is now extended from the sea to the Merrimae River : Bradford, Groveland, Georgetown, and part of Boxford, which was for some time known as " Rowley Village." It received its named from Rowley, a parish of East Riding, York, Eng., whence its first minister, Ezekiel Rogers, had come. The Congregational Church is in north latitude, 42º 43' 07.16", and in west longitude, 70° 53' 08.25". The boundaries of the town are Newbury on the north, from which it is, in part, sepa- rated by Parker River and Mud Creek, the Atlantic Ocean on the cast, Ipswich on the south, Boxford on the south-west, and George- town on the north-west.

A small section of Plum Island belongs to the town, but the land is of no great value. The surface of the town is drained by Mill River and its tributaries, among which is Great Swamp Brook, on the north and west, and by Rowley River, navigable for small craft to the railway station on the south. Plum Island River, a broad and shallow creek, separates the main body of the town from Plum Island, and the meadows on the westerly margin of that stream furnish valuable crops of salt hay. Mill River affords some motive-power, and the banks of Rowley River abound in elams. The surface of the town is agree- ably diversified, and, in one instance, rises to an eminence of 264 feet above the level of the sea. This elevation is on the confines of Ipswich, and bears the name of Prospeet Hill. From it a charming view of the valley of the Merrimae River, the neighboring villages, and the ocean, is obtained. The geological formation is sienite, por- phyry, and alluvium ; and many bowlders, brought from afar in the glacial period, are scattered over the town. The soil is well adapted to the growth of forest and fruit trees, and also to that of corn, oats, barley, hay, and culinary vegetables.

The population of the town in 1875 was 1,162. of whom 602 were males and 560 females. One person had attained the age of ninety-seven years. The number of voters was 381, and of ratable polls 395. There were no persons of color. The town had 179 farmers, ninety-two boot and shoe makers, sixteen merchants and traders, the same number of farm laborers, eleven carpenters, seven painters, and seven persons retired from business. There were five female teachers, 297 housewives, six housekeepers, and eighteen domestic servants. The value of goods manufactured for the year ending May 1, 1875, was as follows : For boots and shoes, $88,500 ; for heels, $45,000; for flour, $10,000; for lumber, $5,000; and for wagons and wheels, $3,000. Blacksmithing was done to the value of $1,600; and butchering to the value of $26.000; the total amount of capital employed in all being $34,550. The number of barrels of clams taken was 2,200, valued at $4,400.

The whole number of dwelling-houses was 253; of farms, 154, embracing in all 7,213 acres ; of horses, 183 ; of cows, 353 ; of oxen, forty ; of sheep, fourteen ; of apple-trees, 12,745 ; and the total valua- tion of the town was $515,461.

The town has four publie schools, two churches, one of which is Congregational, and the other is Baptist; a good hotel, called " The Eagle House," George J. Smith, proprietor ; two saw-mills, one grist-mill, and one shingle-mill.

The principal village on level ground, near the confines of Ipswich, is finely shaded with elms; and some of the streets still bear the names of the places whence the early settlers came. The people, mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits, are noted for industry, fru- gality, and the love of home. They are, for the most part, the lineal descendants of those who purchased the lands of the aborigines. Among them are found the substantial virtues, and many of the cus- toms of their worthy ancestors. The farms are generally kept in good order, and some of the dwelling-houses, as the Jewett house, bear the marks of great antiquity. A building was taken down in 1878, which had inscribed or cut into one of its oaken beams the date of 1686. The timbers were still sound. The houses

are generally surrounded with fruit-trees, shrubbery, and flowers, and present an air of comfort and tranquillity. The town has long been noted for the excellence and abundance of its apples. The principal amusements of the people consist in church sociables, ex- cursions either by land or water, picnics, berry parties, daneing, base ball, and croquet. The old husking parties have long since passed out of date; yet hunting and fishing along the seaboard, where the supply of birds and fish seems inexhaustible, may be as popular now as in the olden times.

Some writer, speaking of Rowley, says: "It is one of the pleas- antest towns in Essex County. There is everything about it sub- stantial, prosperous and agreeable. In the summer season, it is hardly possible to go over the green hillocks, and through the quiet intervals, along the roads, dust laid by the late showers, or by the sparkling brooks fringed with luxuriant grass and flowers, and see the quiet and peace reigning everywhere in this old town, - the contentment and prosperity of its stable farmers, and the thrift and joyousness of its active mechanics, without wishing that we had been born in Rowley ; that it had been our lot first to have heard there the lowing of the cattle, and down its hillsides to have tumbled the ripened pumpkins, when autumn yellowed the leaves. Let the world go. To be born in such a place, and in the sereneness of old age to die in such a place, and to sleep at last in the same dust with the good old fathers of olden times, were enough to fill the cup of mortal happiness full."

The English, under the guidance of the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, com- meneed a settlement here as early as 1638. The Act of incorporation is thus briefly expressed : " 4th day of 7th month 1639, ordered that Mr Ezekiel Rogers plantation be called Rowley."

On the 13th of May, 1640, it was declared by the General Court " that Rowley bounds is to be eight miles from their meeting house in a straight line .; and then a cross line diameter from Ipswich Ryver to Merrimack Ryver when it doth not prejudice any former grant." In October of the same year the Court ordered " that the neck of land on Merrimack, near Corchitawick be added to Rowley."

On the "tenth of the eleaventh Anno Dni 1643, Thomas Nelson, Edward Carleton, Humphrey Reynon & Francis Parrot made a survey of the town and a register of the several honse lots of from 1} to 6 acres then laid out to the settlers. They were as follows : On Brad- ford Street, Thomas Ellethrop, John Dresser, Hugh Chaplin, Peter Cooper, Thomas Sumner, John Burbank, Thomas Palmer, William Wilde, William Jackson. Hugh Smith, Michael Hopkinson, John Boyn- ton, William Boynton, Thomas Dickinson, Joseph Jewett, Maxemilian Jewett, Jane Grant, John Spofford, George Kilborne & Margaret Stan - ton whose lot contained only one acre. On Wethersfield street, John Remington, James Barker, William Stickney, William Scales, Mat- thew Boyes, Jane Brocklebank, Thomas Mighill, Margery Shove, Humphrey Reynor, & Ezekiel Rogars who had six acres. On Holmes street John Miller, John Jarrat, Francis Parrot, Edward Carleton, Henry Sands, Thomas Leaver, John Trumble, John Haseltine, Thomas Tenney, Robert Haseltine, Richard Swan, Thomas Lilforth, Richard Thorlay, Francis Lambert, Robert Hunter, William Acy, Thomas Miller, William Harris, John Harris, Thomas Harris, John Newmarch, William Bellingham, Thomas Nelson, Thomas Barker, Sebastian Brig- gam, George Abbot, Edward Bridges, Cushins Crosby & Richard Nalam. Sixteen other lots were soon afterwards laid out to the following persons, viz. : John Smith, Mark Prime, William Tenney, Nicholas Jackson, Richard Leighton, John Pearson, Edward Sawer, James Bailey, Richard Holmes, Thomas Burkley, John Tillison, Samuel Bellingham, Thomas Sawer, Daniel Harris, William Law & John Hill.

The common lands of the town were assigned to the settlers in pro- portion to the extent of their respective house-lots. A military com- pany was soon formed of which Sebastian Brigham was appointed captain. It was to be drilled eight days during the year, and the fine for absence was five shillings per day. The people early distinguished themselves for the manufacture of cotton, hemp and flax cloth. "Our supplies from England," says Winthrop, in 1643, " failing much, men began to look about them and fell to a manufacture of cotton, whereof

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

we had store from Barhadoes, and of hemp & flax wherein Rowley, to their great commendation, exceeded all other towns."

Of the carly settlers here, Edward Johnson, in his " Wonder-work- ing Providence," says : " They consisted of about three score families. Their people, being very industrious every way, soon built as many houses, and were the first people that set upon making cloth in this western world ; for which end they built a fulling-mill, and cansed their little ones to be very diligent in spinning cotton-wool, many of them having been clothiers in England."

This fulling-mill was built in 1643 by John Pearson, in the parish of Byfield, which then belonged to Rowley.

The first-recorded marriage in town was that of Robert and Anna Hasseltine. in 1639; and the first-recorded birth was that of Robert Carleton, in the same year.

In the minds of the people. the church was the leading institution ; the minister the chief guide in things temporal as well as spiritual. llence a plain mecting-house was erected some time during the first year of the settlement ; a church was organized Dec. 3. and the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers installed as pastor. Ile was born in Weathersfield, Eng., in 1590, and was for some time chaplain to Sir Francis Bar- rington. after which he was pastor of the church in Rowley, York- shire, for about twenty years : when, in 1638, Le came, with a large company of his people, to Rowley, Mass. He was an eloquent speaker, and mreached the election sermon before the General Court, in 1643, in which he maintained that the same person should not hold the office of governor for two succes-ive years.

Samuel Mather ( Harvard College, 1643) was some time an assist- ant of Mr. Rogers in Rowley " where the Zeal of the People to have him settled, was the Cause of his not settling there at all."

The closing days of Mr. Rogers were far from tranquil. Late in life he married a third wife, but "that very night," says Cotton Mather, "a fre burnt his dwelling house to the ground, with all the goods that he had under his roof." His right arm was soon afterwards rendered useless by a fall from a horse ; so that he was obliged to learn to write with his left hand. After a lingering illness, he died Jan. 23, 1661, aged 70 years. He gave the greater part of his lands and his house to the town and church of Rowley.

This property subsequently reverted to the use of Harvard College. It does not appear that the inhabitants of Rowley were ever much annoyed in the settlement by the Indians; they were, however, fre- quently called upon to march away, and to fight for the defence of other places. On the 1st of September, , 1642. several men were ordered from the place to disarm Passaconaway, on the Merrimac River, who was then supposed to be inimical to the English. They were out three days, and received three shillings each for their ser- vices. In August, 1653, twenty-seven men from Rowley and Ipswich were ordered out on a scouting expedition, to discover the intentions of the savages assembled at Piscataqua. They were absent four days.

The first grist-mill in town was erected by Thomas Nelson, anterior to 1645, on Mill River. Ten acres of land were granted to him the preceding year, " for encouragement towards building the mill." After the death of Mr. Nelson, 1648, John Pearson made improvements in the mill.

The first physician in town was Dr. Anthony Crosby, who practised here from 1652 until about 1670. He was followed by Dr. David Bennett, who died here, Feb. 4, 1718-19, at the remarkable age of 103 years. The first town clerk was John Miller, from 1639 to 1641 ; the next was Francis Parrot, from 1642 to 1655. He was also a representative to the General Court in 1640 and in 1642.

The Rev. Samuel Phillips ( Harvard College, 1650) was settled in June, 1651, as teacher of Mr. Rogers' church, on a salary varying from £50 to £90 per annum. During the sickness of the pastor, Mr. Phil- lips performed the whole duties of the ministry, for which service the selectmen ordered that £5 should be paid to him. After the decease of Mr. Rogers, his widow, and those in sympathy with her, continued to annoy Mr. Phillips for the space of eighteen years, on account of his reception of this money, to which they persistently claimed he had no legal right. The case was decided in favor of the widow by the Ipswich court; but the decision was overruled by the General Court, and by a church council held on the 19th of Nov., 1679, and the course of Mr. Phillips justified.

On the 15th of Nov., 1665. Samuel Shepard (Harvard College, 1658) was ordained pastor of the church, Mr. Phillips still acting as teacher. Mr. Shepard dying. April 7, 1668, Mr. Phillips was then ordained as pastor, in which office he continued until his death, which occurred, April 26, 1696, after a ministry, either as teacher or pastor, of forty-five years. During the last thirty years of his life, fifty-four

were added to the church, and at his death the office of teacher in that church is supposed to have ceased.

Mr. Phillips married Sarah, daughter of Mr. Samuel and Mary Everhard Appleton. From them Mr. Weudell Phillips, of Boston, is descended.

The Rev. Mr. Phillips preached the election sermon before the Gen- eral Court in 1678. A monument was erected over his remains by the Hon. Jonathan Phillips, in November, 1839, bearing this inscription :

" Beneath this stone are buried the remains of Samuel Phillips, the second pastor of the church in Rowley."

" Ile was born in Boxford, Eng., A. D. 1625 ; came to America with his father, George Phillips, first minister of Watertown, Mass., in 1630 : was graduated at Harvard College in 1650 : was settled in the Christian ministry in this place in June, 1651, where he served God and his generation faithfully for forty-five years, and died. April 22, 1696. Near this spot are buried the remains of his wife, Sarah, daughter of Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich. She died, July 15, 1714, aged eighty-six years. From them have descended among others, George Phillips, minister at Brookhaven, Long Island, N. Y., who died, 1739, aged seventy-five years. Samuel Phillips, minister at Andover, Mass., died, June 5, 1771, aged eighty-one years. Samuel Phillips, one of the founders of Phillips Academy. Andover. died, Aug. 21, 1790, aged seventy-six years. John Phillips, founder of Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., died, April, 1795, aged seventy-six years. Samuel Phillips, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, died in Andover, Feb. 10, 1802, aged fifty years. William Phillips, a dis- tinguished merchant and patriotic citizen, died in Boston, January, 1801, aged eighty-two years. William Phillips, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, died in Boston, May 26, 1827. aged seventy-seven years ; and John Phillips, President of the Senate of Massachusetts, and first mayor of Boston, died in Boston, May 29, 1823. This mon- ument is erected by Hon. Jonathan Phillips, a descendant in the sixth generation, A. D. 1839."

The earliest mention of a meeting-house bell is in 1653. It was hung in a frame. as it was called, near the meeting-house. During the ministry of Mr. Phillips, Samuel Brocklebank. William Tenney, John Pearson, and Ezekiel Jewett were appointed deacons.

The earliest mention of a school is Feb. 3. 1656-57, when William Boynton was engaged by the town as a teacher for the term of seven years. This church then agreed to loan him £5, for enlarging his house for the accommodation of his school. He usually received £2 10s. yearly for sweeping the meeting-house, and for ringing the bell. He probably taught here for about twenty-four years, when he was followed, in 1682, by Mr. Simon Wainwright ; after whom the Rev. Samuel Phillips was employed as a teacher.

The town in early times was much infested with wolves and catamounts. It paid for many years a bounty for killing wild animals. Several pens were built for taking wolves. It is stated in the records, in 1661, that "Lieut Samuel Brocklebank, Henry Rily, Thomas Wood, John Grant, Richin Rainer & John Migill, having engaged to make a pen for catching wolves, had the privilege granted, that nobody else shall make any pen anywhere upon the Cow Commons during the space of three years, and they are to have for every wolf taken by their pen, fifty shillings, paid by the town."

That part of the town subsequently known as " New Rowley " began to be settled about the year 1669, and it is presumable that John Spotford, Sr., and his two sons, John and Samuel, were the first actual white residents of the place.

In 1673, Samuel Brocklebank was appointed captain ; Philip Nelson, lieutenant ; and John Johnson, ensigu, of the military company.

In the autumn of 1675, twelve Rowley men were impressed into the service to meet the exigeneies of King Philip's War. then raging. Their names are John Hopkinson, John Stickney, Joseph Jewett, Thomas Palmer, John Jackson, Stephen Mighill, John Leighton. Caleb Jackson, William Brown, Samuel Tiller, Joseph Bixby, and Simon Gowin. These men and others, under Capt. Brocklebank, were led in January, 1676, to Narragansett, and thence in March to Marl- borough, where, in an assault upon the Indians, one of the company had his hand badly shattered by the breaking of his guu.

Capt. Samuel Wadsworth, with fifty men, was sent from Boston to the relief of Marlborough. Learning on his arrival that the enemy had gone to Sudbury, he proceeded with his own and Capt. Brockle- bauk's party towards that town. Discovering a few Indians, and pur- suing them about a mile into the woods, the English found themselves suddenly surrounded by some five hundred of the savages, who with hideous yelling opened a destructive fire. Almost every one of the men engaged on our side was slain. A monument was erected on the

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

357

spot about 1730, by Benjamin Wadsworth, then president of Harvard College, and brother of Capt. Samuel Wadsworth, bearing this inscription :-

" Capt Samuel Wadsworth of Milton, his Lieut Sharp of Brooklin, Capt Brocklebank of Rowley, with about Twenty-six other Souldrs Fighting for the Defence of their country, were slain, By ye Indian enemy April 18th 1676, & lye Buried in this place." The date should have been April 21st instead of April 18th.

Another monument was erected on this spot in 1852, with this in- scription, still erroneous in respect to the day of the month :-

" This monument is erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and by the town of Sudbury in grateful remembrance of the service and sufferings of the founders of the State, and especially in honor of Capt. S. Wadsworth of Milton, Capt Brocklebank of Rowley and Licut. Sharp of Brookline, and 26 others men of their command who fell near this spot on the 18th (21st ) of April, 1676, while defending the frontier settlement against the allied Indian forces of Philip of Pokonoket. 1852." As John Hopkinson, John Stickney, Joseph Jewett, Thomas Palmer, Stephen Mighill, John Leighton, and Caleb Jackson, of Capt. Brocklebank's command returned to Rowley subsequent to the engage- ment, it is probable that they were left as a guard, cither at Marl- borough or Sudbury, and so escaped the fate of their companions.

The Rev. Edward Payson, born in Roxbury, June 20, 1657 (Har- vard College, 1677), was ordained as colleague with Mr. Phillips, Oct. 25, 1682, and continued in the ministry until his death, which occurred Aug. 22, 1732.

In 1675, the westerly section of the town, known as the "Merri- mack Lands," or "Rowley Village by Merrimack," which began to be settled by Robert and John Haseltine and William Wild, about 1650, was incorporated as a town under the name of Bradford. A meeting- house had already been constructed, and the Rev. Zachariah Symmes, though not then ordained, was preaching in the place.

The number of families in the town, in 1680, was 129, and to over- see these families, eleven tithingmen were appointed; viz., John Palmer, Abel Longley, Thomas Tenney, Thomas Wood, Daniel Wic- om, John Dresser, Joseph Chaplin, Ivory Kilborn, and John Pearson.

The south-western section of the town, long known as "Rowley Village," was incorporated as the town of Boxford, Aug. 12, 1685, it then containing about forty families. The petitioners for the Act of incorporation were Abraham Riddington, Sr., Joseph Bixby, Sr., Samuel Buswell, Sr., William Foster, and John Peabody. In the petition they say : "Wee lying so far remote from Rowley that wee cannot comfortably atend God's public worship for the greatest part of the year, it is therefore the general desire of the inhabitants of Rowley village to bee a preparing to settle a minnester amongst our- selves as soon as convenantly wee can, thearfore wee desiar that the Honoured General Court would bee pleased to grant us township preveleg, that so wee might the more comfortably cary on so needfull a work, for the betor edication of our children that cannot gooe fouer mieles to meting."

Several men were ordered, in 1689, to the defence of Haverhill and Dover against the Indians ; but it is not known that any of them were slain. In the expedition against Quebec, 1690, Rowley furnished one captain, Philip Nelson, one lieutenant, and thirty other men. Of these, John Bailey and Moses Wood died on their way to Canada.

The earliest tax-list preserved bears the date "ye 9th June 1.691," and the rates were to be paid " either in money, or in publick bills of credit, or grain, or provisions at the prices specified in the warrant."

The selectmen for this year were Ezekiel Northend, Ezekiel Jewett, Samuel Platts, John Stickney, and Robert Greenough.

Of the foot company, Joseph Jewell was captain, John Dresser, lieutenant, and Andrew Stickney, ensign.

On the 23d of October, 1692, Mr. Goodrich, his wife, and two daughters were killed by the Indians, he being shot while at evening devotions with his family. His daughter Deborah, seven years old, was taken captive, and subsequently redeemed by the Province. This family lived in that part of Rowley which is now Byfield.

A meeting-house was erected on the site of the old one in 1697, and a committee of seven was appointed to seat the people, having respect to age, office, and the sum paid towards the building. In 1699, a watch-house was constructed on one of the hills of the town.

In 1700, the town paid, through their committee, Dea. Ezekiel Jewett, Samuel Platts, and Capt. Joseph Boynton, to Samuel and Joseph English and John Umpec, heirs of the Sagamore Masconomo, the sum of £9 for a title to the lands of Rowley.

In 1702, the people living at " The Falls," on Parker River, uniting with some people from Newbury, erccted a meeting-house. They

were incorporated as a parish by the name of "The Falls," Nov. 17, 1706, and the same day a church was organized, and the Rev. Moses Hale, born July 10, 1678, was ordained as pastor. The name of the parish in 1710 was changed to Byfield. Mr. Hale died Jan. 16, 1743- 44, and was succeeded in the pastorate by the Rev. Moses Parsons (Harvard College, 1736), and ordained here, June 20, 1744. He was the father of the eminent chief justice, Theophilus Parsons, and died Dec. 11, 1783. The next pastor at Byfield was the Rev. Elijah Par- ish, born 1762 (Dartmouth College, 1785), and ordained here Dee. 20, 1787. He was a man of learning, and left many valuable publi- cations, He died Oct. 15, 1825, and was succeeded, Dec. 20, 1827, by the Rev. Isaac R. Barbour, who was dismissed in 1833. Just before his dismission, the meeting-house was destroyed by fire ; but it was soon rebuilt and dedicated, November 7 of the same year. The Rev. Henry Durant, the fifth minister of Byfield, was ordained Dee. 25, 1833.

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Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 124

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett Number of Pages: 450

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450