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 44

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 44

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An estimate of the population of the town, at the end of the seven- teenth century, in a preceding chapter, gives the number of inhabi- tants at abont six hundred. Taking the best data that can now be obtained for an approximate result, it appears that, in 1755, the pop- ulation had increased to about twenty-eight hundred.

With regard to the increase of property, our information is very seanty. Thongh a few of the citizens were accounted rich, because they had enongh to supply all the necessaries, and some of the luxu- ries of life, it is quite certain that none eonld be reekoned so, aeeord- ing to the standard by which wealth is now measured in mercantile communities. It is not supposed that half a dozen citizens, in 1755, possessed an estate of the value of ten thousand dollars in gold or sil- ver money. Nor were there many so poor as to require publie aid. The practice of " letting ont" the poor was still continued, and the whole number of this class, in 1757, was nine, - three males and six females, who were supported, for that year, at an expense of $203. Assistance rendered to a few others, carried up the total expenditure for the poor. in that year, to $281. In other words, the cost of the yearly support of the poor, amounted to about ten cents for each inhabitant of the town. It now amounts to about twelve times as much.

The taxes for the payment of town expenses, at this time, were very light ; but, considering the means upon which they were levied, they

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

were no lighter, perhaps, than the heavy rates of the present day. In 1757, the expenditures for " necessary charges," were as follows : -

On account of the poor,

$281 68

For schools,

407 37

Miscellaneous, .

35 94

Selectmen's pay,

86 62

Selectmen's expenses at Capt. Ellery's tavern,

48 60

$860 21

The tax for the repair of highways was made in a separate assessment, and all who chose to do so, "worked it out." The allowance for labor, in this work, was three shillings a day for a man, and twelve shillings for a man, a yoke of oxen, and a cart.

It is, of course, easily seen how taxes increase with the increase of wealth ; but, making all due allowance for the difference in the value of money between their day and ours, it still strikes us with some amazement that the people could, in 1757, enjoy all the benefits of a good town government at an expense of about half a dollar for cach inhabitant, when the same blessing now costs about ten dollars for each.

If this taxation for town purposes was even slightly burdensome, how heavily must the expenses of the French war have borne upon the people of that day | The town's proportion of the Province tax, in the first year of the war, was double the amount of the town tax for the same year; and, in 1758, it was between three and four times the amount raised in that year for the current expenses of the town. In view of this fact, it is gratifying to observe that, instead of reducing the expense for public education, they, at this very period, established more schools ; and that the amount paid for all of them was a larger proportion of the whole town tax than is paid even at the present time. It was at this period that a permanent public grammar school was opened in the Harbor, with Samnel Whittemore, a young graduate of Harvard College, as its teacher, at a salary of £6 13s. 4d. per quarter, exclusive of board, for which the town paid nine shillings per week.

The town had but just got relief from the calamity of war, when they were thrown into a condition of great alarm by the occurrence of an event which threatened greater distress. The small-pox had grievously afflicted the people of Boston in 1752; but Gloucester had never as yet seriously suffered from it. In that year, precaution- ary measures were taken to prevent its introduction, by establishing a guard at the Cut and at the Battery ; and it is not known that a single case occurred in the town. But, in January, 1764, it broke out in the Harbor Village, and, the first casc proving fatal, we find, on the 7th of February, "almost all the Harbor are moving on account of the small-pox ; nothing but carting, -all in motion." It prevailed about three months ; during which, it is known that eight inhabitants were its victims. Eighteen took the disease by inoculation, of whom only one died. The selectmen used all possible means to prevent its spreading, and it was, undoubtedly, owing to great exertions in that direction, that there were no more deaths.

A darker day was about to dawn. New England was ripe for self- government, and the proceedings of the people of Gloucester, with reference to the measures by which the mother country sought to prevent it, gave no uncertain indication as to the part they would take in the final struggle. The Stamp Act, that odious measure for taxing the Colonies, was to go into operation Nov. 1, 1765. On the 7th of the preceding month, in a very full town-meeting, the people declared "nemine contradicente. and most unanimously, That the Stamp Act is disagreeable "; and that their representatives in the Great and General Court should, "by all direct and lawful means, endeavor that the Stamp Act may never take place among us." The opposi- tion to the Stamp Act procured its repeal ; but the plan of taxation was not abandoned. Next followed the duty on tea, and some other articles imported into the Colonies. This led to a town-meeting, held Dec. 14, 1767, which adopted the vote passed by the people of Boston, on the same occasion, and ordered the same to be entered at length upon the records.

The year 1766 is distinguished in the annals of Gloucester as one of peculiar distress. Nineteen fishing vessels sailed together, in March, for the Grand Bank, and, while on the passage thither, encountered a violent storm, which wrecked and scattered the fleet, and sent many to the bottom. Two were cast away at Nova Scotia, seven foundered at sea, with all on board, and several of the rest. were so much disabled, that they could not proceed on their voyage.

The number of men lost by this terrible calamity is not known ; but it was probably not less than forty.

The dissolution of the General Court, by the governor, in 1768, and his refusal to convene another, led to a convention of the people at Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the 22d of September, in which Thomas Sanders, Jr., and Peter Coffin, Esqs., were the delegates from Gloucester, -elected by a vote which wanted the consent of one only to be unanimons.

In 1772, the crisis was fast approaching, and it was apparent that the matters in dispute would never be peaceably settled. The people of this town, at a meeting held on the 25th of December, took into consideration a letter from the people of Boston, in connection with a pamphlet issued by them, containing a statement of colonial rights, and pointing out the infringements and violations of them by Parlia- ment ; and, at an adjourned meeting, adopted resolutions in full accordance with the sentiments of the Boston patriots, and declaring " that the people of Gloucester were ready to join with them and all others, in every legal way, to oppose tyranny in all its forms, and to remain steadfast in the defence of their rights and liberties "; and, finally, should all other methods fail of desired relief, that they were "desirous of joining with all others in an appeal to the great Lawgiver and Fountain of all justice."

Enough has been given to show that the people of Gloucester kept step with the most advanced patriots of this anxious and alarming period ; and, it will be sufficient to add, that, in the progress of the great events of the next two years, they did not falter, and that, when the first blow for American liberty was struck at Lexington, they were ready to make good a declaration long before made, that, if compelled to make the last appeal to Heaven, they would defend their resolutions and liberties at the expense of all that was dear to them.

In accordance with the recommendation of the Provincial Congress, active military preparations were commenced in town. Musket-balls were procured, cartridges made, small-arms purchased, and a com- pany of minute-men organized. While the people were busy about these matters, came the news of the fight at Lexington, which, on account of the exposed and unprotected situation of their own homes, filled them with consternation and alarm. They knew that there was a large British naval force in Boston harbor, and, fearing an attack, many of the inhabitants at the Harbor immediately sought safety for the women and children, by removing to West Parish and Ipswich. The flight was on the Sabbath.

CHAPTER X.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

THE APPEAL TO ARMS - TWO GLOUCESTER COMPANIES IN BUNKER HILL BATTLE - CAPT. LINDSAY, IN THE BRITISH SLOOP-OF-WAR "FALCON," ATTACKS THE TOWN AND IS REPULSED -POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE-THE "YANKEE " HEROES-PEOPLE READY FOR DEC- LARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - PRIVATEERING - LOSS OF BRIG " GLOUCESTER " - PRIVATEER SHIP "GENERAL STARKS" - GREAT NUMBER OF MEN OF THE TOWN VICTIMS OF THE WAR - DESPERATE ACT OF POOR WOMEN - APPEAL TO THE GENERAL COURT - SMALL POX -MONEY VOTED TO MEET CALLS FOR SOLDIERS-LOSS OF SHIP " TEMPEST "-STATE CONSTITUTION - PEACE.

The first blood in defenee of American liherty had been shed ; and it now became the duty of the people of Gloucester to join their brethren, who were gathering for a conflict in arms in support of the glorious cause.

It is not easy to ascertain the whole number of Gloucester men that repaired to the different encampments around Boston, but we know that more than 220, in six companies, were in the field in the first year of the war. Two of these companies were in the Battle of Bunker Hill. From one of them, commanded by Nathaniel Warner, two men were killed and three wounded ; and from the other, commanded by John Rowe, three men were killed and two wounded.

In less than ten months from this time, the war was brought to their own homes, and the fidelity of the people of the town to their prin- ciples was put to the test on their own soil. On the 8th of Aug., 1775, Capt. Lindsay, in the sloop-of-war " Falcon," chased a schooner into the harbor, and, having followed her as far as he safely could,

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

came to anchor, and prepared to take possession of her where she lay on the flats. For this purpose he sent in two barges, well armed and manned; but the resistance of the people on shore, who had hastily mounted two old swivels, and gathered all the muskets and ammuni- tion that could be proenred, with which they opened a smart fire upon the enemy, compelled Lindsay to send in a prize schooner and a cut- ter with a re-enforecment, the commanding officer of which he ordered to fire on the " damned rebels," wherever he could find them. At the same time he eannonaded the town, and sent some men to attempt to sct it on fire. But the little party at the water-side performed wonders, and were at length rewarded by a complete victory. They got posses- sion of both schooners, the eutter and barges; and, with them, took thirty-five men prisoners ; having already killed three of the cnemy, and wounded several others. The loss of the town was two men,- Benjamin Rowe and Peter Lurvey. Having acquitted themselves of their duty so well, the wearied vietors repaired to James Prentice's tavern for refreshment. This tavern was at the corner of Middle and Pleasant streets, where the Baptist church now stands, and there, without doubt, a great concourse of the people of the town assembled to tender congratulations and thanks, and to rejoiec over the good work of the day. Public attention was now drawn to the defenceless state of the town, and breastworks were thrown up in five different places around the harbor.

This eventful year drew to a close with dismal forebodings of dis- tress for the coming winter. The town derived its chief means of support from maritime employments, to which the war put an end, and a very large proportion of its people were obliged to resort to public help for even a bare subsistence.

In the next year, the only local oeenrrence growing out of the war, in which people of the town were chief aetors, was the attempt to take a large British ship, which appeared off the Cape one morning in Junc. Observing that she seemed to be elumsily worked, and to have few men on board, and supposing that she could be casily captured, the people of Sandy Bay made preparations to board her. About twenty men, in three fishing-boats, proceeded fearlessly to the attack. They had seareely left their moorings, when they perceived the privateer brig " Yankee," then just ont from Newburyport, eoming round Hali- but Point. They went on board of this vessel, and easily indueed the captain to attack the British ship. The boats were sent back, and the brig proceeded towards the ship, into which, upon approaching near enough, she let off a broadside. The ship immediately opened two tiers of ports, and gave such a return as convinced the Cape men of their great mistake. A contest of about an hour ensued, at the end of which, having spent all tbeir ammunition, and loaded their last gun with pieces of iron, spikes, and a erowbar, they struck to the British frigate " Milford," of thirty-six guns. There is no doubt that the Yankee heroes made a gallant defence in this fight, but the wonder is that they should have been so thoughtless and reekless as to get into it at all. They paid dearly for their temerity. They were carried as prisoners to Halifax, and thenee to New York, where, while in confiDe- ment in a prison-ship, many of them had the small-pox. On board the brig one man was killed, one was wounded, and died after some time in Halifax prison ; one was shot in the thigh, and one lost a hand.

The suffering condition of the poor again demanded public atten- tion, and at a town-meeting in May, this year, a loan of £100 was authorized to proenre provisions for their relief. But there was no abatement of ardor in the cause of liberty. The customary official recognition of royal authority in warning town-meetings in the name of the king was now abandoned, and the one just mentioned was called in the name of the government and people of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay. One other step remained for them, which the people of Gloucester soon took, by deelaring their readiness to renounce all political connection with the land of their ancestors.

At the close of this year, and the beginning of 1777, exertions were made by the town to enlist men for the Continental Army, but enlist- ments for the land-service now went on slowly. Privatecring was an employment better suited to the habits of a mereantile community, though its profits were uncertain, and its risks great. In the first year of the war, the people of the town engaged in enterprises of this kind, in a small way ; making use of their fishing-boats for the purpose. They took a few prizes of little valuc near their own shore, but met with no great success. The first vessel that put to sea from Glouees- ter on a privateering cruise, was a fishing sehooner named the " War- ren." She sent in two valuable prizes, but, on a subsequent eruise, she herself became a prize to a British ship, on the third day from home. Another fishing sehooner and a sloop, were this year fitted out as privateers, and made a few prizes, of no great valne ; but the most

important enterprise of the kind in which the people engaged at this time, was the fitting ont of the brig " Gloncester," a new vessel, earry- ing eighteen guns, and having a erew of one hundred and thirty meu, including offiecrs. It is said that she sailed about the 1st of July, 1777. Not long after leaving home, she captured two brigs, which were sent in under charge of a prize-master and crew in cach ; and no further tidings of the " Gloucester" were ever received. Tradition always affirmed that sixty wives in Gloucester were made widows by the loss, and that the calamity overwhelmed the town with sadness and gloom. With this addition to the common calamities of war, it is hardly pos- sible to draw too dark a picture of the condition of the town during the following winter and the next spring. Its impoverished state indneed it to send a memorial to the General Court, stating its inability to comply with the resolves of that body respecting supplies to the sol- diers' families ; for whose relief the only apparent resource at this time was a subscription for voluntary contributions. But all the means at the command of the benevolent were hardly adequate to give even a meagre support to the whole number of families depending upon public aid.

In 1778, and all the succeeding years of the war, Gloucester eon- tinucd to be the seene of considerable enterprise in the business of privateering, but many of the vessels were owned wholly or in part by people of other towns, and the gains to Gloucester by it were small. One of the vessels, owned chiefly by David Pearce, a mer- chant of the town, was a new ship of 400 tons, named the " Gen. Starks." She made several successful cruises, but was taken, on her last cruise, and carried to Halifax. Capt. Wm. Coas, her commander, with some of his officers, sailed from that port in a cartel for Boston, which was supposed to have fonndered at sca, as she was never again heard from.

The fifth year of the war came, and the prospeet still before our fathers was so gloomy that they needed all the hope and courage they could summon to their aid to stimulate them to further sacrifices in the contest for independence. The retrospect was, indeed, sad and dis- conraging. One itein of the town's loss during these four years of war speaks in too plain words of its suffering and sorrow. Three hundred and fifty-seven of its people,-about one-third of the whole number who were assessed for a poll-tax when the war began,-had perished at sea, fallen in battle, died as prisoners, or in some way beeome vietims of the war. The poverty, which was one of its un- happy conseqnenees, is sufficiently attested by the fact that 750, prob- ably more than one-sixth of the whole population, were at this time chiefly dependent upon charity for their daily bread. The soil of the town had not furnished enough for the support of its people two months in the ycar ; its shore-fishery had been unproductive for want of a market ; its few privatecring enterprises had yielded the means of subsistenee to a small unmber only, and its foreign trade was nearly annihilated; 700 tons of its shipping, employed in foreign eommeree, having been captured by the enemy in the single year of 1779.

It was at this period of great poverty that a large troop of women, in want of the necessaries of life, marehed to the store of Col. Joseph Foster, and made known their determination to supply them-elves with provisions and groceries from his stock, in spite of all resistance. They would give an exact account of all they took, and pay if they were ever able, but, pay or no pay, they must have them. This merchant was one of the most ardent patriots of the town, and his condnet on this occasion proved him to be one of the most benevolent ; for the tale of destitution and suffering that the women had to tell so touched his feelings, that he liberally supplied their wants, and dis- missed them with words of kindness and sympathy.

From all these facts it may readily be seen that the people of Gloucester had thus far borne a heavy share of the burdens, sacrifices, and sufferings of the war; but, great as these had been, another year of trial was before them. Their resources were again taxed, even beyond their ability to pay, for their proportion of the public burdens ; and they were obliged to plead to the General Conrt for an allowance, and ask that an agent from that body should be sent to view the im- poverished condition of the town. They continued, however, to do their best to furnish their quota of men and elothing for the army, and in no case failed to come up to the full measure of every demand made upon them which their means enabled them to supply.

In addition to the suffering aud distress which the war brought upon them, they were now afflieted with a loathsome discase, which, in the carly part of 1779, had spread all over the town, defying every effort to check it. During the last four months of the preceding year great excitement had prevailed in the town on account of the small-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

pox. The people had taken a firm stand against inoculation, having voted, in the spring, "to have no inoculation in town on any terms," but in October they changed their minds, and provided hospitals in different places to accommodate the inoculated. The disease was so widely spread that all were exposed to it, and the prejudice against inoculation, as the safest way of taking it, yielded to necessity, and the citizens submitted to a general inoculation. Several died, but no particulars have been preserved to inform us how many or what pro- portion of those who took the disease became its victims. Tradition reports that of 110 who, in one of the villages of the town, were inoculated, only two died.

The acts of the town in relation to its supplies for the Continental Army during the remainder of the war, may be briefly stated here. Of the State's quota, in 1780, of 4,000 men, the number to be raised in Gloucester was thirty-two, whom a committee was authorized to procure, and to borrow $120,000 for that purpose. On the 17th of July the town voted to raise a tax to procure thirty-eight men as mili- tin, and offered £300 per month for three months' service. Authority was also given for a loan of $60,000, and, on the 7th of August, they voted to raise $51,060 to pay soldiers, and directed that all money and goods furnished by the inhabitants for the campaign be carried to the several committees for them to lay before the selectmen in order for payment. To provide the town's quota of provisions and clothing for the army, a tax of £40,000 was levied, and the selectmen were author- ized to borrow that sum in anticipation of payment. These figures sound large, but it must be remembered that the paper currency was now depreciated to about one-seventieth of its nominal value. In January, 1781, the town was called upon to raise forty-eight men for the army, and, although it voted a tax of £1,000 in silver money to pay the bounty authorized by the State (fifty dollars to each man), the committee appointed for raising the men reported, in April, that they had not procured them, but the delinquence was not of long con- tinuance, for, in August, it appears that the men had been furnished. The town's quota of clothing and provisions for the army at this time was also supplied, though the taxation necessary to procure it, with the other assessments made upon them, must have been a grievous burden to the people. It would be a gratification to know more con- cerning the supply of such demands upon the pecuniary resources of the town, but all we can learn of the financial operations of our fathers at this period is the little that is contained in the votes which they passed in town-meeting. The valuations and tax-lists of the town have not been preserved.

Another sad disaster at sea, at about this time, inflicted a severe loss upon the town. The ship " Tempest," Isaae Semes, captain, was fitted out for the West Indies as a letter of marque, and sailed in com- pany with the ship " Polly," Capt. Foster. They kept company till they got into the Gulf Stream, where they encountered a severe gale, attended with the most terrific thunder and lightning. During one brief flash, by which several men on board the " Polly " were stunned, the " Tempest" was seen by Capt. Foster, a short distance off; but, when the next flash enabled him to discern distant objects, she was missed, and never again seen. Capt. Foster supposed that she was taken aback, and went down stern foremost. The names of a few Gloucester men who perished in her have been preserved, but the exact number is not known. It was very large, without doubt, for tradition has always reported that the grief occasioned by the loss, was not only deep, but wide-spread.

Any further account of Gloucester privateering in the Revolution- ary War, would be but a mere sketch of voyages, and may properly be omitted here. It may be added, however, that a true history of the Revolutionary privateering of the town, could only be given in a record of individual experience, which would tell of widows' broken hearts, of orphans' bitter tears, of the agonies of men struggling with the ocean, in the face of death ; of physical suffering in prison-ships ; of wanderings in foreign lands, without friends, without money, and without health ; and, worst of all, of the demoralizing influences of a practice which every enlightened conscience must condemn.

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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 44

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