USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Haverhill > The history of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860 > Part 3
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27
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
CHAPTER III.
SETTLEMENTS IN MASSACHUSETTS FROM 1620 TO 1640.
THE fame of the " plantation " at Plymouth soon spread through a large portion of England, exeiting the deepest interest in the subject of colonization, and emigration soon began in earnest.
In 1623, settlements were made at Cocheco, (Dover, N. H.,) and at Piseataqua, (Portsmouth) ; and there were probably a very few settle- ments in Maine. In 1624, a company from England, ealled the Dorchester Adventurers, commenced a settlement at Cape Ann, but soon abandoned it and removed to Naumkeag (Salem). The Plymouth colony, now num- bering two hundred and eighty persons, in thirty-two cabins, had already established a trading house at Nantasket, and commenced one at the Ken- ebec. During the succeeding year, a settlement was commenced in Quincy, on the eminence which still bears the name of the founder of the plantation, Mount Wollaston.
From 1620 to 1630, the emigration to New England was inconsiderable, and but few new settlements were made.
The first vigorous and extensive movement toward the settlement of Massachusetts commeneed in 1628, when a patent was obtained for Sir Henry Roswell and others, conveying lands extending from the Atlantic to the Western Ocean, and in width from a line running three miles north of the River Merrimack, to a line three miles south of the River Charles. In August, of the same year, John Endicott, one of the patentees, with a company of "fifty or sixty persons," arrived at Naumkeag; and before winter commenced a new settlement at Mishawam (Charlestown). The next year, the company was much enlarged ; a royal charter was obtained, creating a corporation under the name of the " Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England ; " and soon after the organization under the charter, six vessels with "eighty women and maids, twenty-six children, three hundred men, with victuals, arms, tools, and necessary ap- parel, one hundred and forty head of cattle, and forty goats," arrived at Salem, at which place they found " half a score of houses, and a fair house newly built for the Governor." One hundred of the colonists im- mediately " planted themselves " at Charlestown.
In 1629, it was determined to transfer the charter to New England. John Winthrop was chosen Governor, and in March, 1630, he sailed for
28
HISTORY OF HAVERIIILL.
Massachusetts with a fleet of cleven vessels, "filled with passengers of all occupations, skilled in all kinds of faculties needful for the planting of a new colony." During this year, seventeen ships, with about fifteen hun- dred passengers, arrived in the Bay and at Plymouth. Settlements were then established at Wessagussett, (Weymouth) Nantasket, Mount Wollas- ton, Mattapan, (Dorchester) Salem, Mystic, (Medford) Lynn, Charlestown, Winnissimet, (Chelsea) Noddle's Island, (East Boston) Thompson's Island, Shawmut, (Boston) Watertown, Roxbury and Newtown, within the limits of the Massachusetts colony.
The accessions in 1631 were but few, but in the two following years they were more numerous. In 1634, the colony contained from three to four thousand inhabitants, distributed in sixteen towns. Boston was the capitol. During this year, settlements were commenced at Saugus, Mar- vill Head, (Marblehead) Agawam, (Ipswich) and Merrimacke.º
In 1635, Newbury, Concord, and Dedham were incorporated. Already " the people were straightened for want of room," and parties from Dorchester and Newtown had "planted in Connecticut." In 1636, Roger Williams laid the foundation of Providence, R. I., and new settlements begun to spring up on every hand. Plantations were made at Windsor, Hartford, Weathersfield, and New Haven, in Connecticut; and at Exeter, and Hampton, in New Hampshire.
Emigrants continued to arrive in large numbers. In three months. in 1638, no less than three thousand settlers arrived in Massachusetts. Plantations were commenced at Salisbury and Rowley, in 1639, though persons had settled in the former place as early as 1637.
In 1640, it is calculated there were in New England over twenty thou- sand persons, or four thousand families.
Before 1643, at which time the four colonies of Massachusetts. Ply- mouth, Connecticut and New Haven, formed a " Confederation of New England Colonies," there were supposed to be a thousand acres of land planted for orchards and gardens, and fifteen thousand other acres under general tillage. The number of neat cattle was estimated at twelve thou- sand, and the number of sheep at three thousand. Acts had been passed incorporating North Chelsea, Salisbury, Springfield, Rowley, Sudbury, Braintree, Woburn, Gloucester, Haverhill, Wenham, and Hull, in addition to those already mentioned. This year four counties were incorporated : Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Old Norfolk, containing in all thirty towns.
The country east of the Piscataqua was still almost without English
> Wood's New England Prospect.
29
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
inhabitants, and the only town then incorporated west of Worcester, (in this State) was Springfield."
Emigrants continued to arrive in large numbers, until about 1640. The meeting of the Long Parliament, by opening the prospect of a fair field to fight out the battle of freedom at home, put a final stop to the ex- patriation of patriotic Englishmen; and for the next century and a quarter, it is believed that more went hence to England than came hither from England. Nor did anything that can be called an immigration oc- cur again for nearly two hundred years. t
" The following is a list of the towns in Massachusetts which were settled previously to 1640, and also those settled in that year :
Settled.
Settled.
Settled.
Barnstable,
1639
Ipswich,
.1633
Sudbury,
1638
Beverly,
1626
Lynn, ·
1629
Watertown,.
1630
Boston,.
1626
Marblehead,
1631
Wenham, ..
1639
Braintree, .
1630
Medford,
.1630
Weymouth,
1624
Cambridge,
1630
Newbury,.
.1635
Yarmouth,
1639
Charlestown,
1628
Plymouth
1620
Concord,.
1635
Rowley,
1639
HAVERHILL,
1640
Dedham,
1635
Roxbury,
1630
Woburn,
1640
Dorchester
1630
Salem,
. 1626
Reading,
1640
Duxbury,
1637
Salisbury,
.1639
Marshfield.
.1640
Gloucester,
1639
Scituate, .
1633
Manchester, .
1640
Hingham,
1633
Springfield, .
.1635
Haverhill was the thirtieth town settled within the present limits of the State of Massachusetts and the forty-ninth in New England. It was the thirty-second incorporated town in the State.
t Palfrey.
30
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
1
CHAPTER IV.
ABORIGINAL INIIABITANTS.
THE native population of New England, at the time of the first English immigration, was probably not far from fifty thousand; of which number Connecticut and Rhode Island contained perhaps one-half, and Maine rather more than one-fourth.º Of the Maine Indians, the Etechemins dwelt furthest towards the east ; the Abenaquis, of whom the Tarratines were a part, hunted on both sides of the Penobscot, and westward as far as the Saco, or, perhaps the Piscataqua. The home of the Penacook or Pawtucket Indians, was in the valley of the Merrimack, and the contigu- ous region of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts tribe dwelt along the Bay of that name. Then were found the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, in southeastern Massachusetts, by Buzzard's and Narragansett Bays ; the Narragansetts, in Rhode Island; the Pequots, between the Narragansetts and the river Thames; and the Mohegans, from the Pequots to the Con- necticut river. In central Massachusetts were the Nipmucks, or Nipnets. Vermont, Western Massachusetts and northern New Hampshire, were almost, if not absolutely, without inhabitants.
These principal tribes were sub-divided into numerous smaller tribes. Of those upon the Merrimack river, were the Agawams, who occupied from the mouth of the river to Cape Ann; the Wamesits, at the forks of the Merrimack and Concord rivers, on the west side of the former and both sides of the latter ; The Nashuas, at Nashua; the Souhegans, on the river of the same name; the Namaoskeags, at Amoskeag; the Pemacooks, or Penacooks, at Concord ; and the Winnequesaukees, at the Wiers, near Lake Winnepiseoge.
The Penacooks were the most powerful tribe in this whole region. The others were controlled by them for a long time, and paid tribute to them. Passaconnaway, a firm friend to the English, was the chief of the Pena- cooks, and the "Great Sachem of all the tribes that dwelt in the valley of the Merrimack. ; He was the most noted powow or sorcerer of all the country, and exerted an almost boundless influence over his people. He lived to a very great age, as Gookinį saw him at Pawtucket (Lowell) " when he was about one hundred and twenty years old." He died about 1665, and was suceceded by his son Wannalancet, who remained at the
Palfrey. t Elliott. # Hist. Praying Indians.
31
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
head of the fast diminishing people until 1677, when he retired to Cana- da. Wannalancet was succeeded by Kancamagus, (known to the English as John Hogkins) son of Nanamocomuck, the eldest son of Passaconna- way. He was elected Sagamore by the remnant of the tribe who remained at Pennacook after the withdrawal of Wannalancet, and was afterwards joined by many " strange Indians," from other tribes, who had become disaffected with the English. He was an active spirit in the Indian diffi- culties of 1676 to 1691, and one of the most troublesome enemies of the English.
The aboriginal inhabitants of New England held a low place in the scale of humanity. They had no civil government, no religion, no letters, no history, no music, no poetry. The French rightly named them Les Homnes des Bois-" Men Brutes of the Forest." Except a power of en- during hunger and weather, acquired by their hunting habits, they were tender and not long-lived; and though supple and agile, they always sank under continuous labor. In them, the lymphatic temperament predomi- nated. They scarcely ever wept or smiled. Their slender appetites required small indulgence, though at times a gormandizing rage seemed to possess them. Though no instance is recorded of their offering insult to a female captive, it must be credited wholly to their natural coldness of constitution. Their grave demeanor, which has so often been interpreted as an indication of self-respect, was rather an indication of mere stolid vacuity of emotion and thought. In constitution of body and mind, they were far below the negro race.
They were simple, ignorant, and indolent. The Indian women per- formed all the drudgery of the household, and were also the tillers of the soil ; the lazy, indolent lords and masters deeming it debasing to engage in aught except hunting, fishing, and war.
Their principle article of food was Indian corn, prepared in various ways, - either boiled alone into hominy, or mixed with beans and called succotash, or parehed, or broke up into meal and moistened with water, in which case it was named nookik" They had also fish and game. nuts, roots, berries, and a few cultivated vegetables.
A hoe, made of a clam-shell or a moose's shoulder-blade, was their only tool of husbandry. Their manure was fish, covered over in the hill along with the seed. Fish were taken with lines or nets, the cordage of which were made of the fibres of the dogbane, or the sinews of the deer. Hooks were made of sharpened bones of fishes and birds.
· Corrupted into nokik, nocake, nonecake, "Johny-cake," etc.
32
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
Their houses, or wigwams, were of a circular or oval shape, made of bark or mats, laid over a frame-work of branches of trees stuck in the ground in such a manner as to converge at the top, where was an aperture for the escape of the smoke. The better sort had also a lining of mats. For doors, two low openings were left on opposite sides, one or the other of which was closed with bark or mats, according to the direction of the wind.
They were slothful, improvident, deceitful, cruel and revengeful. Pa- rental and filial affection were feeble and transient. They had no formal marriage or funeral ceremonies, or forms of worship; no flocks, herds or poultry. Their shelters, clothing, tools, hunting implements, &c., were of the simplest and rudest kind, and could scarce be called ingenious.
The aborigines of New England possessed no code of laws, or any set of customs having the force of legal obligation.
The early French explorers declared that tribes visited by them were without a notion of religion, and there is not wanting testimony of the same kind in relation to the New England tribes. It is certain they had no temples, no public ritual, nothing which can be called social worship, no order of priests, no machinery of religion.
In revenge, they were barbarous and implacable ; they never forgot or forgave injuries. Their wars were massacres.
With the Indian, the social attraction was feeble. The most he knew of companionship and festivity, was when he would meet his fellows by the shores of ponds, and falls of rivers, in the fishing season. Much of his life was passed in the seclusion of his wigwam, and the solitude of the chase. This habit of loneliness aud of self-protection, made him inde- pendent and proud. His pride created an aptitude for stoicism, which constituted his point of honor. This was fortitude under suffering. Craft, rather than valor, distinguished him in war. Stealth and swift- ness composed his strategy. He showed no daring and no constancy in the field; but it was great glory to him to bear the most horrible tortures without complaint or a sigh of anguish.
His brave endurance presented the bright side of his character. He was without tenderness, and but few instances are recorded of his appear- ing capable of gratitude. Cunning and falsehood were eminently his. His word was no security. A treaty could not bind him when he sup- posed it might be broken without danger. Exceptions are to be allowed for in every portraiture of a class of men, as everywhere and at all times there are natures that rise above the moral standard of their place. But
33
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
it remains true of the normal representative of this peculiar race, that his temper was sullen, jealous, intensely vindictive, and ferociously cruel.º
They have been called eloquent. Never was a reputation more cheaply earned. Take away their commonplaces of the mountain and the thunder, the sunset and the water-fall, the eagle and the buffalo, the burying of the hatchet, the smoking of the calumet, and the lighting of the council-fire, and the material for their pomp of words is reduced within contemptible dimensions. Their best attempts at reasoning or persuasion have been the simplest statements of facts. Whatever may be thought of the speci- mens of Indian oratory in other parts of North America, - which must be allowed to be mostly of doubtful authenticity, -certain it is there is no recorded harangue of a New England Indian which can assert a claim to praise. Occasions were not wanting, but the gift of impressive speech was not his.
Their manner of expression was vehement and emphatic ; their ideas being few, their language was far from copious. It really consisted of but few words. They had no letters, but few symbols or signatures, no chronicles, and scarce any traditions extending baek farther than two or three generations.
Such was the aborigines of New England. Those who have studied only the Indian of romance, will seek in vain for a single specimen of such among the sober realities of life. Like the traditional Yankee, they are only and altogether creations of fancy.
A few years before the settlement of New England by the English, a war broke out among the aborigines of the country, which resulted in the destruction of thousands of the Indians. To the war succeeded a pesti- lence, which spread far and wide, and was exceedingly fatal. It raged. at intervals, for more than two years, and extended from the borders of the Tarratines southward to the Narragansetts. "The people died in heaps; " whole families and tribes perished ; so that " the living were no wise able to bury the dead," and seven years afterward the bones of the unburied lay bleaching upon the ground around their former habitations. The nature of this epidemie has never been determined. It has been sup- posed to have been the small pox, or the yellow fever. The Penobscots and the Narragansetts suffered but little from it, nor does it seem to have troubled the few English residents of the country. Richard Vines, who was stopping at Saco when the pestilence was at its height, says that though he and his men " lay in the cabin with these people that died, not
· Palfrey.
34
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
one of them ever felt their heads to ache so long as they stayed there," Thus, as if by special Providence, were the aborigines weakened and scattered, and New England prepared for the reception of civilized and christian immigrants. Throughout the whole of the region swept by the pestilence, there was scarce a tribe that dare oppose the sturdy settlers; and it was only when several of the stronger ones combined, that they were able, even temporarily, to obstruct the progress of the settlement.
The only serious conflicts with the natives between the settlement at Plymouth, in 1620, and that of Haverhill, in 1640, was during the troubles with the Pequots, 1636-7. But so vigorously was the war prosecuted on the part of the English, that, in a few months, that once formidable nation was nearly exterminated, and the few that remained were divided among the friendly tribes as vassals.
35
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
CHAPTER V.
SETTLEMENT OF HAVERHILL. 1640.
THE large immigration into Massachusetts during the years immediately preceding 1638, led to the settlement of many new plantations, as well as the rapid enlargement of those already settled. So great, in fact, was the influx of immigrants, that in many places they could not be accommo- dated. This was particularly the case with Ipswich and Newbury, whither had flocked large numbers of emigrants from the vicinity of Ipswich, Newbury, Haverhill, Lynn, and other towns in the easterly part of Eng- land. By these persons, several new places were settled ; among them, Pentucket, or Haverhill.
The earliest intimation we can find of the settlement of this town, is contained in the following letter to Gov. Winthrop, from one Giles Fir- man, of Ipswich, under the date of Dec. 26, 1639 :-
" Much honored and dear Sir :
But that I thinke it needlesse (God havinge more than ordinarye fitted you for such trials) my letter might tell you with what griefe of spirit I received the news of that sad affliction which is lately happened to your worship, by means of that unfaithful wretch ; I hope God will find a shoulder to helpe you beare so great a burthen. But the little time that is allotted me to write, I must spend in requesting your worships counsel and favour. My father in law Ward,¡ since his sonnet came over, is varcy desirous that wee might sett down together, and so that he might leave us together if God should remove him from hence. Because that cant be accomplished in this town, is verey desirous to get mee to remove with him to a new plantation. After much perswasion used, consideringe my want of accommodations here (the ground the town having given mee ly- ing 5 miles from mee or more) and that the gains of physick will not finde me in bread, but besides apprehendinge that it might bee a way to free him from some temptations, and make him more cheerful and more serviceable to the country or church, have yeelded to him. Herein, as I desire your counsel,so do I humbly request your favor, that you would be pleased to give us the libertye of choosinge a plantation ; wee think it will bee at Pentuckett or Quichichchek,§ [ Cochichawich] by Shawshin : so soon as the season will give us leave to goe, we shall inform your worship
@ Hutch. Hist. Coll., 128. t Rev. Nathaniel Ward. # John Ward. § Andover.
36
IIISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
which we desire : And if that, by the court of election, wee cannot gather a company to begine it, wee will let it fall. We desire you will not graunt any of them to any before wee have seene them. If your worship have heard any relation of the places, wee should remaine thankful to you if you would be pleased to counsel us to any of them. Further, I would entreat for advise in this ; The towne gave mee the ground (100 acres) upon this condition, that I should stay in the towne 3 years, or else I could not sell it: Now my father supposes it being my first heritage (my father having none in the land) that it is more than they canne doe to hin- der mee thus, when as others have no business, but range from place to place, on purpose to live upon the countrey. I would entreate your coun- sel whither or noe I canne sell it. Further: I am strongly sett upon to studye divinite, my studyes else must be lost ; for physick is but a meene helpe. In these cases I humbly referre to your worship, as my father, for your counsel, and so in much haste, with my best services presented to your worship, wishinge you a strong support in your affliction, and a good and comfortable issue, I rest your worships in what he canne to his power. GYLES FYRMIN.º
IPSWICH, 26, 10th, 1639.
Wee humbly entreate your secrecye in our desires."
Whether the reply of the Governor was favorable or otherwise, we are unable to determine, but it is certain that Fyrmin did not leave Ipswich until fifteen years afterwards.
At the session of the General Court, held at Boston on the 13th of the succeeding May, (May 13, 1640) a petition was received from " Mr. Ward and Newberry men" for permission to begin a new plantation on the Merrimack, ; which petition was " committed to the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Mr. Winthrop, Senior, to consider of Patucket and Coijch- awick, and to grant it them, provided they returne answer within three weeks from the 21st present, and that they build there before the next Courte."}
· Gyles Fyrmin (or Firman) was the son of Giles, an apothecary at Sudbury, England. He was born in 1614, educated at Cambridge, England, and afterwards studied medicine and was admitted to practice previons to his emigration to this country. In 1638, the town of Ipswich granted him one hundred acres of land, on condition that he lived there three years. In December, 1639, he married a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, a few days after which he wrote the above letter to Gov. Winthrop. He was made a freeman in the same year. Fyrmin was an elder in the church at Ipswich, where he con- tinned to reside until 1654, when he returned to England. He afterward became eminent as a divine, as well as physician, and after a long and useful life, he died in April, 1697, at the ripe age of eighty-three years.
t This petition is probably now lost, as the most careful search has failed to give us any further clue to it.
# Colonial Records, 1-200.
37
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
Mr. Ward and his associates selected Pentucket, and commenced a settlement at that place some time previous to the October following their petition. It is probable that they commenced operations immediately on learning the action of the General Court, as they had then barely suffi- cient time to plant for that season, and the fact that before the prescribed time they had commenced a plantation shows that they were by no means dilatory in their movements.
At the next session of the Court, (October 7th, of the same year) a com- mittee was appointed " to view the bounds between Colchester" and Mr. Ward's plantation. ;
We are confident that no white man had settled within the limits of Pentucket previous to the coming of Mr. Ward's associates, as no mention can be found of such settlement in the records of the colony, which are quite full and explicit upon all similar matters relating to that early period of its history. As early as September, 1630, (within two months after the arrival of the Charter of the Colony) it was " ordered that noe person shall plant in any place within the lymitts of this pattent, without leaue from the Gouvernor and Assistants, or the maior part of them ; " and "also that a warrant shall presently be sent to Aggawam, to com- mand those that are planted there forthwith to come away." That this was no " dead letter " enactment, may be judged from the fact that seven years afterwards,-and when thousands of immigrants had arrived in the country, and new settlements were increasing with great rapidity,-an order was given to the constable of Newberry to apprehend those men who had thus planted themselves at what is now Salisbury, and to take them before the court, at Ipswich, to answer for such violation of law. At the November Court, 1637, leave was granted certain petitioners from New- berry to settle at Winnacunnet, (Hampton) "or upon any other plantation upon the Merrimak, below the first falls, and to have sixe miles square ; " and, in Sept., 1638, liberty was allowed Gyles Firman, and others, upon their petition, " to begin a plantation at Merrimack."
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