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 40

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 40

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The only other natural harbor on the Cape is at Annisquam. This is somewhat difficult of access, having a bar across its entrance ; but it is a safe haven for small vessels, and in the early part of the last century was much used in carrying on the fishing business. The earliest mention of the name given to this part of the Cape is on William Wood's map of Massachusetts, drawn in 1633, where it is spelled Wonasquam. It is also so spelled by Josselyn. 1638. in his " Account of Two Voyages to New England." who adds, "a danger- ous place to sail by in stormie weather, by reason of the many Rocks and foaming breakers." At the easterly end of the Cape small arti- ficial harbors have been constructed at the principal coves, by the erection of stone piers and breakwaters.

The surface of the town is of a very remarkable character, which strikes every beholder. at first sight, with astonishment. It is strewed with bowlders, some of which are of immense size. In many places they are scattered thickly over the surface ; and in one place, called Raccoon Ledge, they are gathered into such a wonderful heap. of all sizes, as to be well worth visiting as a great natural curiosity. These bowlders. together with bold, rocky hills, and precipitous ledges of rock, some of which are of striking and majestic form, combine to present a scene such as the eye cannot probably elsewhere in Massa- chusetts rest upon. The highest elevation of land is a hill called Tompson's Mountain, near the western border of the town. It is two hundred and fifty-five feet above the level of the sea, and its summit affords an extensive prospect of land and ocean. On a clear day there are plainly discernible, at distances varying from twenty to eighty miles, -Bunker-Hill Monument ; Wachusett Mountain, in Worcester County ; several mountains in New Hampshire ; and Agamenticus, in Maine.

The geological structure of the town presents a few other features deserving notice. One of these. Rafe's Chasm. is a remarkable fis- sure in a ledge on the sea-coast between Norman's Woe and Kettle Cove. The ledge itself presents oceanward an aspect of singular boldness and grandeur, and the booming of the sea from the hidden recesses of the chasm causes every visitor to feel the presence of a sublime and majestic influence. Other " observable Rarities," to use the words of Rev. Cotton Mather, in writing about them to a friend in England. in 1724, are two rocking stones, one of which is in a pasture on the north side of the Cape, and the other on the sea-shore, near Bass Rocks. The latter is situated at the end of a large and high ledge, jutting out into the sea ; and is not perceived, without close examination, to be a detached portion of it. It lies in such juxtaposition to the main rock as to strike against it at every oscilla- tion. Its weight has been estimated not less than five hundred tons.

It has a rocking motion of about one inch. and at or about half-tide, when a heavy sea is breaking upon the shore. it exhibits a constant, tremulous motion, affording a rare illustration of hydro-dynamic power.

There is abundant evidence that the rocky surface of the town, now offering scarcely a tree or bush to relieve the eve, was once cov- ered with a fine growth of the various kinds of wood found in New England. Besides the quantity required for home use, an early exportation of wood and timber to Boston was commenced and car- ried on, without doubt, till a large portion of the territory was left in the condition of mere pasture ground. The botany of Cape Ann is. however. rich in the possession of a rare plant called the Magnolia glauca, whose only native place in Massachusetts is a swamp in the westerly part of Gloucester. It grows to the height of about ten feet. and yields a beautiful. fragrant flower, through nearly the whole of the warm season. The discovery of this plant has been attributed to Chief Justice Parsons, who was of a Gloucester family, He may have been the first to bring it into public notice. but it probably attracted the attention of the inhabitants long before his day.

There are but two ponds of considerable magnitude within the limits of Cape Am; one. a beautiful sheet of water, covering about seventy acres, near the easterly end of the Cape. and another, of smaller size, on Eastern Point.

The islands near the Cape and in its harbors are few in number, and of but little importance. except for the historical interest con- nected with those that attracted the notice of early explorers of our shores, particularly of that celebrated navigator. Capt. John Smith. who associated them with one of the marvellous exploits of his own wonderful carcer, by naming them the "Three Turks' Heads." These islands all lie off the south-easterly part of the Cape. One, Straits- mouth. is separated from the main land by a channel of only a few rods in width. Its surface is rocky. and covers not more than forty or fifty acres. A lighthouse has been erected on it for the accommo- dation of the inshore navigation of the Cape. The other islands of this group are farther from the shore, but not much, if any, more than a mile distant. Thacher's, the larger of the two, is estimated to contain about eighty acres. part of which consists of good soil. In 1771. the Colonial Government became its owner, and in the same vear erected two lighthouses and a dwelling-house on it. at a cost of £2.735. The name of this island perpetuates the memory of one of the most distressing shipwrecks that ever happened on the coast of New England - that of a pinnace, having on board the Rev. John Avery and Mr. Anthony Thacher, with their families, on the 12th of August. 1635.

Near the entrance of the principal harbor, on the westerly side, is Kettle Island. which is high and rocky, and of no importance as to size or use. It was known by its present name as early as 1634. when five men, belonging to Salem, were drowned from a canoe near it. Within the harbor. and in Annisquam River, are a few small islands, of sufficient importance to receive names at an early date, but deserving no further notice here.

On the westerly side of the harbor is Norman's Woe. a large rock, lying a few rods from the shore. and connected with it by a reef, which the sea leaves bare at low water. It is mentioned in the town records as early as 1702, and is there called Norman's Oh. Öe, in some of the languages of northern Europe, means an island, and this may have been the origin of the doleful name now applied to this spot. Distressing shipwrecks have occurred near it. one of which suggested the " Wreck of the Hesperus," a pathetic ballad of one of our most popular poets.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY VISITS OF EUROPEANS - CHAMPLAIN VISITS AND NAMES TIIE CAPE AND) HARBOR - CAPT. JOIIN SMITII VISITS AND NAMES THE CAPE - A FISHING PLANTATION ESTABLISHED UPON IT - DORCIIES- TER ADVENTURERS AND PLYMOUTH PEOPLE OCCUPY THE TER- RITORY.

The first Europeans who landed on the shores of Cape Ann were some of the company of the French who founded the first permanent settlement in Nova Scotia. DeMonts, the leader of the enterprise, accompanied by Champlain and others, made a voyage of exploration along the coast of New England in 1605, and, during its progress, anchored off the head of the Cape, which, from the three islands they saw there, they called Cap aux Isles. In the next year (1606), another party, with Champlain again of the number, in a small bark, in search of a better place for settlement than that they occupied in Nova Scotia, once more visited the Cap aux Isles and entered what is now Gloucester Harbor, where they came to anchor and remained two or three days. They gave it the name of Le Beau Port. Here, under a chief named Quionhamence, they found as many as 200 natives, with whom they had considerable intercourse, during which the French thought they perceived some signs of hostile demonstrations, where- upon they hastened to depart.

The next visitors to the Cape were of the English race. In 1614 the famous Capt. John Smith, with two ships and forty-five men and boys, came to the coast of New England, or, as it was then called, North Virginia. Leaving his ships and most of his men at Monhegan to pursue the objects of the voyage, Capt. Smith, in a small boat with a few of his men, explored the coast from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod, within which bounds, according to his own account, he " sounded about twenty-five excellent good harbors." Le Bean Port does not appear correctly drawn on the map of the territory he visited, and it is not known that he landed anywhere on the Cape, though he gave it a name,-Tragabrigzanda,-which was that of a Turkish lady who showed him much kindness while a prisoner in her country. After his return to England, Prince Charles substituted for it that of his mother, Queen Ann, consort of James I. The three islands lying off the head of the Cape were called the " Three Turks' Heads," in memory of an exploit by which three Turkish champions were successively slain by Smith in personal combat; but the name was not retained and the islands have long borne their present separate appellations.

Having received the name by which it has ever since been known, and which, in fact, down to the present century, was quite generally used for that of the town situated upon it, Cape Ann does not again appear as a point of interest, or even of notice, till, in the autumn of 1623, fourteen men were left, by an English fishing vessel, to spend the winter upon its shores. These men were part of a company sent in that year, in a small ship of fifty tons, on a fishing voyage to the coast of New England. One object of their employers,-some mer- chants and others about Dorchester, Eng.,-was the establishment of a plantation for fishing and trade, but it does not appear that they had any particular spot in view for this purpose. The ship came to the usual fishing-ground (about Monhegan), but, arriving late in the season for fishing, did not complete her lading there ; and " the mas- ter thought good to pass into Mattachusetts Bay, to try whether that would yield him any." It was the first fishing voyage from England to any part of our coast so far to the west as Cape Ann.

The Dorchester adventurers, in pursuance of their design to estab- lish a fishing settlement in New England, sent over two ships in 1624 to fish, and had thirty-two men carrying on the plantation work at Cape Ann,-two of whom, John Tylly and Thomas Gardener, were overseers, the first of the fishing and the other of the planting. But the fishing this year " sped very ill," and the returns promised no encouragement for the continuance of the enterprise. Not disheart- ened, however, the company despatched three vessels in 1625; in one of which, of about forty tons, were sent " kine and other provisions "; and, that nothing should be wanting to secure the prosperity of the colony, so far at least as the proceedings of the plantation could contribute to it, a very superior man, Roger Conant, already in the country, was appointed its superintendent, or governor, and the Rev. John Lyford was invited to join the plantation as its minister; but at the end of the year, finding their operations still resulting in a large pecuniary loss, the adventurers decided to abandon the design of planting a fishing colony at Cape Ann. Their property at this place was left in charge of Mr. Conant, who, with John Woodbury, John

Balch, Peter Palfrey, and perhaps a few others, soon removed to Naumkeag, now Salem, and planted there " a new Colony upon the old foundation," which became the first permanent settlement in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The spot occupied by these early residents is plainly marked by tradition ; and other evidence is not wanting to indicate the place. It is on the north-west side of the outer harbor. With reference to its early use, probably, it received the name of " ffisherman's field," by which it is called in the early records of Gloucester. The spot used for landing fish is indicated by the name it has always borne-the Stage.

The Dorchester adventurers were not the only party that made the harbor of Cape Ann a scene of business operations in 1624 and 1625. Some of the Plymouth Company had procured, in the year first named, a patent, conveying to them " a certain tract of ground in New England," " in a known place then comonly called Cape Anne," and sent hither the ship "Charity," on a fishing voyage, in the spring of that year, after she had discharged some supplies at Plymouth. The master of the ship, it is said, was a "drunken beast"; most of his men were like him ; and a poor voyage was the natural result. Notwithstanding this ill success, the Pilgrims and their friends in England undertook another enterprise of the same kind, in 1625, with a ship and pinnace ; but, before their arrival, another vessel came into the harbor, and her crew seized the stage and other provisions made by the crew of the "Char- ity " and the Plymouth people the year before. This act led to a dis- pute and a war of words, but happily a more serious encounter was pre- vented by the friendly interposition of Mr. Conant and Capt. William Peirce, the master, it is supposed, of the ship in which the Pilgrims were interested, and which was then lying in the harbor.

With the close of this year's fishing all connection of the Plymouth people with Cape Ann seems to have terminated, though their last vessels were highly successful in taking fish, and both of them, "well laden," " went joyfully home together," the master of the larger ship towing "ye lesser ship at his sterne all ye way over-bound."

Thus, probably in the early part of 1626, Cape Ann, after three years' occupancy by English residents, was left in quiet possession of the aborigines. During the succeeding five or six years an occasional visitor of that race came to its shores, but not more than one or two years followed before the natives were supplanted by a company of permanent settlers from England. All we know about the territory, as the seat of any Indian settlement, is derived from the account of Champlain's visits in 1605 and 1606. Its Indian name was Wingaer- sheck. Skeletons of the aborigines and Indian tools have been found here ; but whether it was the permanent seat of a tribe, and whether our ancestors were welcomed to a friendly wigwam, or alarmed by the menacing gesture and suspicions carriage of the red man, no record or tradition is left to tell.

CHAPTER III.

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.

TRADITIONARY ACCOUNT OF FIRST SETTLEMENT -PERMANENT SETTLE- MENT AND INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN - LISTS OF SETTLERS TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - DISTINGUISHED DE- SCENDANTS OF SOME OF THEM.

IT is not certain when the permanent settlement of Cape Ann was commenced. A tradition, which has been handed down in the Robin- son family, relates that a son of the Pilgrim pastor, with others, left Plymouth in 1626, in search of a suitable place for a fishing station, which they found at Cape Ann, where they set up a fishing stage, and established their families. This tradition comes to us through a chan- nel which entitles it to some respect, but, in the absence of any con- firmatory evidence, it may properly be left without further remark here.

On somewhat better authority we are told that there were settlers here as early as 1633, who "met, and carried on the worship of God among themselves, read the word of God, prayed to him, and sung psalms." This statement is made in a printed sermon, preached by the Rev. E. Forbes, minister of the First Parish in Gloucester, in September, 1792, who gives, in the margin, reference to an "ancient manuseript" to warrant his assertion.

But, whatever uncertainty may exist with reference to the first per- manent occupation of Cape Ann by English settlers, it is a matter of record that the General Court, May 22, 1639, passed an act for the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

encouragement of Mr. Maurice Thomson, merchant, and others to begin a fishing plantation there. It is not known, however, to what extent he availed himself of the privilege granted to him by the act, but it appears that he actually commenced operations under it, for the carly town records make mention of "the land where Mr. Tomson's frame stood "; and it was, probably, the enterprise of Mr. Thomson, to which a writer of that period, who resided in Boston in 1639, alludes in a work which he published soon after his return to England, in which he says : "At Cape Ann, where fishing is set forward, and some stages builded. there one Master Rashley is chaplain." Another carly writer calls "Cape Ann a place of fishing ; being peopled with fishermen till Mr. Richard Blindman came from a place in Plimouth Patten."

From the statements herc presented, it is reasonable to conclude that Cape Ann was occupied by a few fishermen several years, perhaps continuously, before a town was incorporated upon its territory. The first movement with this end in view was in October, 1641, when com- missioners were appointed by the General Court to view and settle the bounds of Ipswich, Cape Ann, and Jeffries' Creck (now Manchester) ; and the deputy-governor (Mr. Endicott) and Messrs. Downing aud Hathorne, deputies from Salent, or any two of them, were appointed to dispose of all lands and other things at Cape Ann. Pursuant to this authority, as the town records declarc, "the first ordering, settling, and disposing of lots, was made by Mr. Endicott and Mr. Downing, commissioners, 2d month, 1642." Whatever the settlement may then have been, in regard to numbers, it assumed more importance, about that time, by the arrival of the Rev. Richard Blynman, with several families from Plymouth Colony ; and it was, at a court in May in that year, by the simple form of incorporation then used, established as a plantation and called Gloucester, taking this name, probably, by desire of some of the principal settlers, who are said to have come from the city of the same nanie in England.

No means exist for ascertaining the names of all of Mr. Blynman's companions. No discrimination is made in the records of the town between these settlers and those who preceded and those who followed them ; but it is not difficult to make out a list of those who are known to have been residents of Gloucester and proprietors of its soil from the time of its permanent settlement to the close of 1650. The fol- lowing persons appear to have been of this class, all of whom, cer- tainly with one, and possibly with three or four other exceptions, died in town, and all but three of whom left descendants : -

James Babson, Thomas Bray, William Brown, Mr. (probably Ed- mund) Clark. John Coit, Jr., Cement Coldam, John Collins, Anthony Day, Osman Dutch, Robert Elwell. Sylvester Evcleth, Stephen Glover, William Haskell, Thomas Jones, Thomas Judkin, Thomas Kent, John Pearse, Capt. (probably William) Perkins, Thomas Prince, Abraham Robinson, William Sargent, Morris Somcs, William Stevens, Wun. Southmayd, Walter Tybbot, Thomas Very, William Vinson, Henry Walker.

Capt. Perkins is supposed to be the William Perkins who became a preacher, and removed to Topsficld. The three other exceptions arc John Coit, Jr., Willian Stevens, and William Southmayd, each of whom left a wife and children in town, but it is not known that any one of the three died in it. Stephen Glover, Thomas Judkin, and Henry Walker left no descendants.

After residing in Gloucester a few years, Mr. Blynman and several of the first settlers removed to New London, thirteen in all, as fol- lows, viz. :

Christopher Avery, James Avery, William Addes, Richard Blyn- man, Obadiah Bruen, Hugh Calkin, John Coit, Sr., William Hongh, William Kenie, Andrew Lester, William Meades, Ralph Parker, William Wellman.

We may infer that thesc settlers left with no unfriendly feeling towards their recent home, for their lots in New London were laid out in a new street, long known as Cape Ann Lane, and now called Ann Street. Others of the first settlers who were land-holders, were -

William Ash, Thomas Ashley, Alexander Baker, George Blake, John Bourne, Thomas Chase, Matthew Coe, Thomas Cornish, William Cotton, William Dudbridge, William Evans, Henry Felch, James Fogg, John Gallope, Charles Glover, John Holgrave, Zebulon Hill, George Ingersoll, John Kettle, Nicholas Liston, John Luther, Solo- mou Martiu, Thomas Milward, George Norton, Hugh Pritchard, Phineas Rider, Edward Rouse, John Sadler, Thomas Skellin, James Smith, Thomas Smith, Stephen Strecter, John Studley, Thomas Wakley, John Wakley, Philip Yondall.

The names of four others - Richard Beeford, Mr. Fryer, Samuel Haieward, and Robert Sadler - who do not appear as proprietors of

the soil, complete the list of settlers of the early period before named, - cighty-onc in all.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, not many New Eng- land towns gained much by immigration. We cannot count as many as ninety, who became new settlers in Gloucester, during all that time. The following list is believed to contaiu the names of all of them :

Joseph Allen, Ralph Andrews, Edmund Ashby, Thomas Bailey, Giles Barge, William Bartholomew, Anthony Bennet, Richard Biles, John Briars, Edmund Broadway, John Brown, John Butman, William Card, Arthur Churchill, Peter Coffin, William Cogswell, William Col- man, John Cook, John Curney, Zaccheus Curtis, Johu Davis, Nicholas Denning, Richard Dike, Samuel Dolliver, Moses Dudy, Peter Duncan, John Durgee, William Ellery, John Emerson, Peter Emons, John Fitch, Bartholomew Foster, James Gardner, George Giddings, Richard Gooding, John Hadley, Nathaniel Hadlock, John Hammons, John Hardin, Edward Harraden, George Harvey, Samuel Hodgkins, James Hughes, John Jackson Charles James, Henry Joslyn, John Lane, Thomas Lufkin, Thomas Low, Edmuud Marshall, Philip Merritt, Thomas Millet, Edward Mills, Henry Muddle, Francis Norwood, Joseph Page, Elias Parkman, Jeffrey Parsons, Thomas Penny, John Pool, Rowland Powell, Thomas Pulcifer, Thomas Riggs, John Ring, John Roberts, John Rowe, Abiel Sadler, James Sawyer, William Sar- gent, 2d, James Sayward, Robert Skamp, Morris Smith, John Smith, Philip Stanwood, George Storer, Harlakenden Symonds, Richard Tar, James Travis, Robert Tucker, John Tucker, Bridget Varney, John Wallis, Samuel Webber, Nathaniel Wharf, Williaur Whitridge, Richard Window, Henry Witham, Humphrey Woodbury, Samuel York.

Of these eighty-nine persons, about fifty became permanent settlers, and found here their final resting-place. At least, thirty of the whole number are represented by descendants living iu town, and bearing their names.

The first settlers seem to have located themselves around the har- bor, and on the "neck of house-lots," by which term they usually designated that portion of the territory lying between Annisquam River and Mill River. Before 1651, it is not certain that there was a single family residing in any other part of the town, excepting one or two on the casterly side of Mill River ; but, soon after that year, settlers are found near Little Good Harbor, at Walker's Creek, at Little River, at Fresh-water Cove, and at Annisquam. A few years later, inhabitants gathered around the coves on the north side of the Cape ; and finally, about the end of the century, the head of the Cape itself received a few permanent occupants. Kettle Cove had become the abode of one family or more ; and no portion of the soil, fit for agricultural purposes, remained nnappropriated to attract the atten- tion of new comers. Such is the rugged and broken character of the territory, that even the small number of people that then composed its population, covered almost every acre of land that could be easily cultivated. From this fact, and other evidence, it appears that most of the carly settlers got their living from the soil, and not from the sea. Boat-fishing, near the shorc, may have been carried on in a small way ; but, noted as the place has since become for its great fishing interests, there is nothing to show that this branch of industry engaged the attention of the people of Gloucester, to any considerable extent, during the first fifty years after the settlement of the town.

In concluding this account of the early settlers, it may be added for the information of any who may wish further knowledge concerning them, that works are extant in print in which the descendants of all who became founders of families in the town are traced dowu through several generations. The names of some of them have been carried, by the distinction of descendants, into the domain of general history. William Ellery, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a great-grandson of onc; Theophilus Parsons, a man of the highest eminence as a lawyer and judge, was a great-grandson of another ; Winthrop Sargent, governor of the Mississippi territory, was a great- grandson of another; besides whom, each of thesc families has fur- nished other distinguished men ; and each has been more or less con- spicuous in the humbler sphere of town affairs.

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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 40

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