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 42

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 42

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Besides the consternation and alarm produced by these arrests, the people of the town were distressed by other occurrenecs, which were supposed to be occasioned by diabolical agency. Spectral French and Indians were seen prowling about the houses and lurking around the garrison ; and, after enduring these disturbers of their peace for a fortnight, the people sent abroad for help. A company of sixty men came from Ipswich to assist in their deliverance from these mysterious invaders ; but it does not appear that any of them were captured, which can hardly be a matter of surprise, considering that they were too ethereal to leave a foot-print upon the soft and miry places over which they were pursued.

The slow increase of the town in population and property to 1693 is shown by a tax-list levied in that year. The tax was for a quarterly instalment of its proportion of a Colony tax of £30,000. The number of polls assessed was seventy-eight, on which ten shillings each was charged. The balance of the assessment - the amount taxed for property- was £29 11s. This tax-list exhibits the noticeable fact that Gloucester held at this time but a very insignificant rank as a place of maritime importance ; for it shows that all its tonnage in vessels was comprised in six sloops, a boat, and a shallop.

Though the growth of the town was slow, it had from the beginning contained the number of householders requiring it, according to a law of the Colony, to support a public school. These, however, were so scattered over its territory that no considerable portion of the children could be conveniently gathered in one school. At length, in 1696, education began to be a matter of public concern, but no schoolmaster was chosen till 1698, when a vote in town-meeting "carried it to choose one," and Thomas Riggs, Sr., was chosen to that office, "to have one shilling and six pence a day during the town's pleasure, and the said Riggs's likeing to carry it on." Mr. Riggs was then town clerk, having been in the office thirty-three years.

Allusion has already been made to a burial ground. This spot, situated near the First meeting-house, and about midway between the Harbor and the Second meeting-house, is supposed to have been the sole depository of the dead till 1698, when the inhabitants on the westerly side of Annisquam River had a grant of land for the same purpose. The first burial place has been enlarged from time to tine, and been used as a place of sepulture down to a recent date. In this ancient cemetery, at the period of which we are now writing, nearly all of those who had given the vigor of carly manhood to the pioneer work of the settlement were sleeping the sleep of death. Of the twenty-four persons mentioned in the list of the first settlers as known to have died in town, eleven were living in 1690, and three passed the limit of the century, -one of whom, William Sargent, lingered on till 1717, when, at the age of ninety-three, he, too, joined the great congregation of the dead. The descendants of these first settlers, with the accession of those of later comers, and those brought by immigration, composed, at the close of the seventeenth century, a population, probably, amounting to six hundred.

It has already been stated that, down to the period of which we are now writing, nearly all the inhabitants of the town were farmers. There is sufficient evidence of this in the locations selected for their homes, and in the inventories of their estates. The largest accumu- lation of property shown by any one of these inventories was that of Henry Walker, who died in 1693, leaving an estate of £922, consist- ing almost wholly of land and farming stock, and a similar preponder- ance of this kind of wealth, with entire absence of maritime property, is found in nearly all of the inventories that have been preserved. The distribution of the substantial comforts of life was probably quite as nearly equal among the carly settlers as it has ever been since. None were so poor, so far as we know, as to wish in vain for food ; and none were rich enough to have much left for luxury, after their daily necessities were supplied.

Having, in 1700, paid Samuel English, an Indian, a few pounds, in satisfaction of his claim to their territory, the town closed its public aets for the seventeenth century by a "full vote and consent of all " to keep the second Wednesday in the next as a day of humiliation and prayer.

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CHAPTER VI.

FIRST CHURCH AND ITS DEACONS - NEW SETTLERS - ACTIVITY IN SHIP-BUILDING - FIRST SCHOONER AND THE MAN WHO BUILT IT - SCHOOL AND FIRST SCHOOL-HOUSE - SAMUEL PEARCE, AND TWO EMINENT MERCHANTS, HIS DESCENDANTS - OTHER NEW SETTLERS - SEVERE LOSS BY SHIPWRECK - THE SECOND PARISH, ITS MINIS- TER AND MEETING-HOUSE.

The religious exercises on the day of humiliation appointed by the town to be observed at the commencement of the eighteenth century were probably carried on by the most gifted of the lay brethren of the church, for they were then without a minister. This body then con- sisted of twenty-one males and forty-nine females. The deacons were Joseph Haskell and James Parsons. In the early part of the eentury it increased rapidly in numbers, and, as we shall hereafter see, in a few years set off a new church without harm to itself.

Of the new settlers who came from 1700 to 1710, a few left de- scendants by whom their names have been perpetuated in town. Samuel Griffin settled in Squam and died about 1764; Samuel Gott, at Halibut Point, and died Nov. 3, 1748, aged 71; John Gilbert, at Kettle Cove, and probably died about 1752; Ezekiel Woodward, at Little River, where he bought one hundred acres of land, and died Jan. 26, 1743; Thomas Harris, at Pigeon Hill. Griffin and Gott came from Wenham, the others from Ipswich. Thomas Sanders, who came about the same time from an unknown quarter, settled at the Harbor, and died July 17, 1742, aged 60.

Thomas Sanders was a ship-carpenter, and probably many others, who about this time seem to have been transient settlers, were of the same occupation. Though vessels were built in the town at an early date, it appears that not more than half a dozen sloops and shallons belonged in it in 1693. In 1698 a ship was built here for Boston merchants, and the notice of this occurrence is the first sign of the great activity in that employment, in which our people soon after- wards engaged on their own account. In the fourteen years follow- ing, one ship, ten brigantines, and more than thirty sloops were built in the town. Many of the vessels of the latter class were open, and are supposed to have been employed in the transportation of wood and timber to Boston, in which a brisk trade was carried on for a few years. The decked sloops were, without doubt, sent out on fishing voyages to Cape Sable and other distant places.

One of the results of this enterprise in ship-building gave a new name to our marine vocabulary and a new rig to the commerce of the world. Capt. Andrew Robinson, a citizen famous for his ingenuity, built a vessel, which, while on the stoeks, he masted and rigged in a peculiar manner. At the launching, while she was gliding into the water, a by-stander cried out, "O, how she scoons," whereupon Robinson instantly exclaimed, " A scooner let her be." He probably meant that this name should be her own particular appellation, but, as she became the type of a class, the designation passed from a pro- prietary to a common use. It is supposed that the peculiar rig of this vessel consisted in her carrying two trapeziform sails, suspended by gaff's, and stretched out below by booms, in place of the lateen sails and Ing sails previously in use. Capt. Robinson was a grandson of Abraham, one of the first settlers, and was one of the most remark- able men that Gloucester has ever produced, though his fame has sur- vived in local annals only. He was a great hunter in his youth, and in his manhood a most skilful fisherman and terrible Indian fighter; and his mind was fertile in resources for every emergeney. He was sometimes employed by the Colony Government in hostile expeditions against the French and Indians, and died in 1742, aged 63, while superintending the erection of a fort and truck-house at St. George's River, Me.

The town, having discontinned the school it had provided in 1699, was, in 1701, presented at a Quarterly Court in Salem for non-com- pliance with the law. An appeal was made to the General Court to send one or two members of the Council to see how it was " circum- stanced with respect to a school," but no excuse availed to relieve it of its obligation to comply with the law. Accordingly, in January, 1703, an agreement was made with Mr. John Newman to keep the school; to be allowed suitable satisfaction for his pains by the town; besides such pay as he should receive from young men whom he might teach "to wright and cypher." Mr. Newman married Ruth, daughter of the Rev. John Emerson, but did not reside in Gloucester till after the death of the latter. He was succeeded in the school by John

Ring ; but, in 1707, the town was again in fault about it, and it was not till 1711 that the grammar school became one of the permanent institutions of the town. The then engaged master was "to teach lattine, if scholars appear," and to have a salary of eight pounds per quarter, with so much in addition as he should be obliged to pay above four shillings a week for his board.

The first school-house in the town was built in 1708, at a cost of twenty-four pounds. It was situated on the easterly side of the Meeting-house Green. Before this building was erected the school was kept in the meeting-house. The grammar school occupied the new structure continuously, from year to year, for twenty-five years ; at the end of which, in consequence of discontent on account of the inconvenience of its location for the people in the outlying sections of the town, it was made a " circulating " school. A plan was adopted by which the town was divided into seven distriets, and the school was apportioned to each according to its proportion of the town rate. With a slight modification, by which the districts were re- duced in number and made to conform to the parish lines, this arrangement continued almost seventy years ; the number of teach- ers being increased according to the growth of the town in popu- lation and wealth. In 1757, the apportionment of the time of two teachers was nearly as follows :-

One at the Harbor Parish, 11 months.

the Second, or West Parish,

the Third, or Squam Parish, 22

the Fourth, or Town Parish,

the Fifth, or Sandy Bay Parish,

These parish schools were sometimes of an inferior order, but, poor as they were, most of the children acquired the ability to read and write.

The tide of immigration, induced by a vigorons pursuit of maritime employments, continued to swell the population of the town through- out the early part of the eighteenth century. Among the new settlers, who left descendants in it, was Samuel Pearce, a ship-carpenter, who removed hither from Duxbury about 1713, and here became the founder of a family, which, by its wealth and influence, occupied a commanding position in the town for more than half a century. The date of his death is not known. His son, David, born in 1713, died about 1759, leaving three sons, - David, Joseph, and William. Joseph was an early settler at New Gloucester, Me., and died there, Nov. 8, 1837, aged ninety-two. The other two became eminent mer- chants in their native town. David commenced business as a fisher- man, and by industry, temperance, and frugality, soon rose to the command and ownership of a schooner. Continued success enabled him to increase his business, and placed him at length among the wealthiest merchants of his time, with vessels engaged in the whale- fishery and in the European and East and West India trade. The course of this active merchant had been one of constant prosperity from youth to old age: when, at threeseore and ten, a series of reverses, as if to mark the instability of all worldly success, reduced him at once from affluence to bankruptcy. He bore this great trial with resignation, and died in March, 1818, aged eighty-two. William Pearee, at an early age, commenced a sea-faring life, and at twenty- one, such good traits of character were developed in him that he was placed by his brother in command of a vessel in the West India trade. In a few years he acquired sufficient property to establish himself as :1 merchant, and he engaged in extensive commercial pursuits which increased his property largely, and raised him to a position among the most eminent merchants of New England. He continued in active business about fifty years, sharing, during the latter portion of the time, the labors and profit of it with the members of his family, who, together with himself, constituted the well-known firm of William Pearce & Son. He was a good man, and his best characteristics were brought out, as usual, by severe trial. He had long withdrawn from the cares and anxieties of business, having secured, as he supposed, an abundant competency for his deelining years, and had reached the venerable age of eighty-two, when the commercial house, of which he was the founder, and in which his name and property had always been used, was suddenly obliged to yield to the pressure of peeuniary embarrassment. The aged merchant bore the descent from affluence to poverty with Christian resignation, and a calm and peaceful death elosed his well-spent life, Feb. 3, 1845, at the age of ninety-three.

The year 1716 is memorable in the annals of the town, as that in which its people were first overwhelmed with sorrow, ou account of a terrible calamity by shipwreck. Five vessels, comprising, upon a

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reasonable supposition, not less than one-tenth part of the entire ton- nage of the place, were wholly lost in that year on a fishing voyage to Cape Sable, and about twenty men - a fifteenth part, probably, of all the male citizens of the place - perished by the catastrophe. The towu has often since, by the same cause, been shrouded in mourning ; but considering the scanty resources, both of population and property, upon which this misfortune fell, it stands almost without a parallel in all the subsequent disasters to be noticed in this history.

The inhabitants of the town, residing on the westerly side of Annis- quam River, had, from the beginning, been put to great inconvenience in attending public worship ; but they had, at this time, by immigra- tion and natural increase, so gained in number as to be able to settle a minister in their own section, and to procure from the General Court an Act incorporating them as the Second Parish in Gloucester, June 12, 1716. Soon afterwards, Mr. Samuel Tompson received a unanimous call to be their minister, with a salary of sixty pounds per annum, and was ordained November 28th, in the same year. Mr. Tompson was a son of the Rev. Edward Tompson, of Marshfield, and was born in Newbury, Scpt. 1, 1691. He graduated at Harvard College in 1710. His ministry over the new parish was terminated by his death, Dec. 8, 1724, at the age of thirty-three. It was said of him that " his min- isterial gifts were superior, and his fidelity, diligence, and success answerable." The house in which he resided is still standing, and is situated a few rods from the spot occupied by his meeting-house, and his final resting-place is marked by a grave-stone in the old burying- ground of his parish. He married, Nov. 21, 1716, Hannah Norwood, by whom he had five children.

The next minister of the parish was Richard Jaques, who was born in Newbury, April 12, 1700, and graduated at Harvard College in 1720. He was ordained Nov. 3, 1725. His yearly salary was to be £100 "so long as he should perform and carry on the whole work of the ministry"; and he was to receive it in public bills of credit, which were to be increased or diminished in amount according as the bills should fluctuate in value. With such terms of settlement, it is not strange that the relations between the pastor and people finally ceased to be of a harmonious character. An attack of paralysis, in 1764, rendered him unable longer to perform his ministerial duties, and his salary now ceased. The parish made him a small allowance from year to year till his death, but it is evident that, in the latter years of his life, he considered himself ill-used by his people. He died April 12, 1777, the day on which he entered upon his seven- ty-eighth year, having been confined to his house, and most of the time to his bed, for the long space of thirteen years. His wife was Judith Noyes, of Newbury. She died Sept. 30, 1790, aged eighty- eight. Their only son, Thomas, married Sarah Haskell, of Gloucester, and died in Newbury about 1805, upwards of eighty years of age.

During the illness of Mr. Jaques, some ineffectual attempts were made to obtain a minister, but, at last, Mr. Daniel Fuller was induced to settle over the troubled parish as colleague pastor, and in his letter accepting the call to it, he expressed an earnest prayer that love, peace, and Christian charity might hallow and bless the union. Mr. Fuller was born in Middleton, Mass., Sept. 1, 1740, and graduated at Harvard College in 1764. He was ordained over the Second Parish Jan. 10, 1770. A long and happy ministry followed, and continued till the infirmities of advanced age admonished the venerable pastor that he must cease from his labors. He preached a sermon on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination ; and soon afterwards his pastoral connection with the parish was dissolved. Ile died at the house of his son Samnel, in Boston, May 23, 1829, in his eighty-ninth year. " Full of years, and mature in virtue, he departed in peace."

Mr. Fuller's wife was Hannah, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Bow- ers, of Middle Haddam, Conn., by whom he had eight children, all of whom lived to marry. Mrs. Fuller died Feb. 19, 1810, aged fifty- eight.

Mr. Fuller was the last minister of the Second Parish, and with his decease the history of the parish is here brought to a close.

The Second Parish meeting-house was already erected when Mr. Tompson was settled. It stood on an elevated plateau, on a pleasant spot, surrounded by wood and pasture land. It was a plain structure, without porch, tower, belfry, or spire, and outlived the parish organ- ization several years, not having been taken down till 1846. It was then probably the oldest church in New England standing in the shape in which it was originally built.

For several years after the close of Mr. Fuller's ministry, no public religions exercises were regularly held in the Second Parish, though there was occasional preaching in the old meeting-house, chiefly by Universalist clergymen. Finally, that portion of the people who still

adhered to the ancient faith, took steps for the re-organization of the church and the crection of a new house of worship. This building - a small meeting-house standing on the main road to Essex - was dedicated Jan. 1, 1834; but no permanent ministry was established over this society till Nov. 11, 1840, when the Rev. Isaac Brown was ordained, who died the next year. The Rev. N. Richardson is the present pastor.

CHAPTER VII.

FIRST PHYSICIAN - OTHER PHYSICIANS - WORK-HOUSE - NEW SET- TLERS - THIRD PARISII, ITS MINISTERS AND MEETING-HOUSES.

Among other indications of an increasing population, at this period, was the settlement of a physician in the town; for no one of that pro- fession is known to have lived in it during seventy years from the date of its incorporation.

Perhaps Mr. Emerson qualified himself, as many of the early min- isters of New England did, by the study of physic, to minister to the bodily diseases of his flock ; for, in the settlement of the estate of one of his parishioners, he receipted for twelve shillings, and two glass bottles, " being all that was due to him for physic." About the time of Mr. Emerson's death, and for several years later, cases are inen- tioned of sending abroad for medical help. In 1669, the selectmen had power from the town to send Ralph Andrews to the Lynn doctor, James Kibber, to be cured of his lameness, " if the said Kibber doth think he can cure him." In 1715, Robert Elwell died in Ipswich, " under the doctor's hands." Female practitioners of the healing art, were also occasionally resorted to, and even the settlement of a pro- fessional doctor in the town did not destroy their business ; for, in 1722, Mrs, Mary Ellery was paid £3 18s, " for cureing Ebenezer Lurvey and his Diat ; " and, in 1725, Elizabeth Gardner received £1 10s " for what she did to the cureing of the widow Peny's brest." It is possible that John Newman was the first physician in the town, for he is once called physician, in 1712, but his name is usually given without the professional title. Dr. Nicholas Webster bought a house of Thomas Sargent, in 1717, and, at that time, probably estab- lished himself as a physician in Gloucester; but his residence was of short duration, for he died Dec. 22d, in that year, aged forty-three. About three years after this date, Dr. Edward Tompson appears in the town as a resident. His marriage to Ann Peker, of Haverhill, took place Oct. 27, 1720; and the births of his children (Anin and Abigail) are on the town records. In 1721, he was engaged for one term, to teach the grammar school. In 1725, he had land " on the town-neck, on the way leading from town to Squam," and, in that, and the next year, he was one of the selecetmen. With the end of his duties in that office, his connection with the town appears to have closed. It is supposed that he removed to Haverhill.

Another physician had established himself in Gloucester before Dr. Tompson's removal. Dr. David Plummer (probably son of Joshua, of Newbury, born in 1696), married Ann Newman in 1723, and from that date was a permanent resident in town. Nothing more is known about him, than can be gathered from the public records. His wife, Ann, died about 1736, leaving a son Samuel, and he next married Widow Anna Barber, by whom he had sons, David and Daniel. He died before 1748, but the date of his death is not known. His son Samuel was cdncated in his father's profession, and succeeded to his practice. He was four times married, and, by his several wives, had eleven children - six sons and five daughters. He died Jan, 30, 1778, aged fifty-three, having, according to the testimony of a contempo- rary, maintained a character adorned with the highest virtucs. An unusual share of domestic troubles fell to his lot, one of which must have sadly embittered his last days.

David, another son of Dr. David Plummer, became a merchant in his native town, and was a prominent citizen many years. He died in July, 1801, aged sixty-three.

In 1719, the town built its first work-house. It had not, for many years, been without paupers, but it does not seem that the proportion of the whole population who were of this class, was as great in early times as it is now. Few, then, were without means to secure the necessaries of life, and none were rich. For more than fifty years after the settlement of the town, it does not appear that any person in it was worth a hundred pounds, exclusive of real estate and farming stock ; and of that, not more than two or three had enough to relieve

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

them from the necessity of daily toil. The work-house now built by the town. was a small structure. with two rooms, probably, and does not appear to have been much used as a home for paupers ; for sepa- rate provision. in a private family, continued to be made for each one. by the selectmen, long after the work-house was built. Finally, it became the custom to let the poor out annually to board ; and this practice was continued till 1796. when they were bronght together into a home just erected for their accommodation. This building cost about five hundred pounds. and, with additions, served the town for this use more than fifty years.

The tide of immigration still flowed towards the town, and added to its population a few settlers, who became founders of families, which have gained a local distinction, at least, in its annals. William Fears came about 1721, married in town in that year. and died about 1775. Robert R. Fears, a descendant, was the first mayor under the change from a town to city form of government. Jonathan Trask and wife removed into town from Salem. about 1722, and had seven sons born here. One of his grandsons. Israel, born in 1765, went to sea, on privateering expeditions. in his youth. and experienced the varied fortune by which that employment was attended. In manhood he was a shipmaster, and gained a fortune by commercial pursuits. With only a small stock of school learning, he became a man of mnch intellectual culture, and took such interest in public affairs that he was twice elected senator from Essex Connty. He died Oct. 4, 1854, in his ninetieth year. Thomas Saville. a cooper, took up his abode in Squam. where he married in 1722, and died at the age of eighty- four. The name was perpetuated by a son, Jesse, whose son, Wil- liam, was a schoolmaster in early life ; next a trader ; and finally, for about twenty years. he held the important office of town clerk, and died Jan. 12, 1853. aged 83. John Stacy became an inn-holder in Gloncester. in 1723. on the condition that he should sell no mixed drink on the Sabbath day. Ile died Feb. 22, 1732, aged 67. One of this name, Philemon, graduated at Harvard College in 1765. and taught school in town many years. In 1779, he embarked on a privateering crnise in the ship " Gloucester," which went down at sea with all on board. Two others of this family, Eben H. and Eli F., have been collectors of the customs at Gloncester.

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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 42

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