USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Haverhill > The history of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860 > Part 30
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Stephen Jaques, of Newbury, thus describes its effects in his vicinity :-
" On the twenty ninth day of October between ten and eleven it being sabath day night there was a terabel earthquake. The like was never known in this land. It came with a dreadful roreing. as if it was thun- der, and then a pounce like grate guns two or three times close one after another. It lasted about two minits. It shook down bricks from ye tops of abundance of chimnies, some allmost all the heads. All that was about . ye houses trembled, beds shook, some cellar walls fell partly down. Stone wals fell in a hundred plasis.{ The first night it broke out in more than ten places in ye town in ye clay low land, blowing up ye sand, sum more, sum less. In one place near Spring island it blew out as it was judged twenty loads, and when it was cast on coals in ye night, it burnt like brimstone."
Henry Sewall, of Newbury, in a letter to Judge Sewall, of Boston, says : ---
" We were sitting by the fire and about half after ten at night, our house shook and trembled as if it would fall to peices. Being affrighted we ran out of doors, when we found the ground did tremble and we were in great fear of being swallowed up alive, but God preserved us and did not suffer it to break out, till it got forty or fifty rods from the house, where it broke the ground in the common near a place called Spring
We copy these interesting accounts from Coffin's History of Newbury.
t We must not infer from this that a majority of the people were sitting by the fire at that hour of Sunday night. Indeed, Stephen Jaques declares that "most people gat up in a moment." This seems conclusive.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
island, and there is from sixteen to twenty loads of fine sand thrown out where the ground broke, and several days after the water boiled out like a spring, but is now dry and the ground closed up again.""
Similar shocks, though less severe, were frequently felt during the greater part of the following year. Between January 1st and May 22d, (1728) over thirty are recorded. On the latter date, the church in this town observed the day as a day of thanksgiving, " for the great mercies of the winter past under the Earthquakes."
As we may readily suppose, the distance at which many families lived from the central meeting-house, joined with the primitive roughness of the roads, and the meagre facilities for riding to church, made it well nigh impossible for many to attend, especially in the winter; and, in the fall of 1727, the inhabitants of the northern and western parts of the town, at their request, received permission to hold meetings at each of those places during the following winter. The inhabitants of the north part of the town had, a few months previously, petitioned the town to build a meeting-house in that part of the town, but without success. Their next move was for permission to have meetings, as above mentioned, and from their petition to the town, the following spring, for money to pay their minister, we learn that such meetings were held.
At the same time, twenty-four persons again petitioned the town to build a meeting-house in that part of the town. Both of these requests were refused. But the inhabitants of that section were now fully deter- mined that their requests should no longer be so lightly treated, and at & meeting held in June of the same year, (June 18, 1728,) they succeeded in securing a vote that the northerly part of the town should be set off into a distinct precinct, or parish. The conditions annexed, were, that the inhabitants should determine within one month where their meeting- house should be erected, and settle an orthodox minister as soon as possible.
" In a conversation with Professor Agassiz we remarked, "If earthquakes and subterranean fires have elevated and depressed portions of this continent, why may they not again." He replied, "They may ; probably they will."
Mr. Coffin in his valuable History of Newbury, between 1727 and 1770, has recorded nearly two hundred earthquake shocks on the Merrimac river ! That disturbed region has long been quiet, and probably will remain so; but who may know what changes the past centuries have experienced !
All the great rivers on the Atlantic coast of the United States have a southerly or south-easterly direc-
tion. The Merrimac has such a direction for one hundred and forty miles, and is the only one which turns in its course and runs north-east, and part of the way north-west. If the history of the buried ages could be restored, it might be found that this river once discharged itself into Lynn harbor. From the Merrimac at Lowell to the head waters of the Sangus is only sixteen miles; while after its turning it finds its de- vious way more than forty miles to the sea at Newburyport! Probably no portion of our land has under- gone greater changes than the seacoast of Essex county, and none presents a more interesting field of research. If we suppose one part to have been elevated, or another depressed, the peculiarity of this river may be accounted for. The subject is worthy the attention of geologists. - Lewis.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
It was formally erected into a Parish by the General Court, in the fol- lowing August. The following were the bounds : -
" Beginning at the Westerly end of Brandy Brow, on Almsbury line, from thence to the Northerly end of the hither North Meadow as it is commonly called. thence to the fishing river and so down the fishing River till it comes to the Bridge by Matthew Harriman's, then running Westerly to the bridge over the brook by Nathl Marble's, and then a straight line Northwest one quarter of a point North, to the bounds of Haverhill, tak- ing all the land within the town of Haverhill north of said line."
Their meeting-house was partly finished this year. The parish then ineluded a part of Hampstead, Plaistow, and Atkinson.
Complaint being made that there were "too many taverns" in town it was decided (June 18, 1728.) that two taverns were " sufficient for the town's benefit ; and Lieutenant Ebenezer Eastman and John Swett were appointed to keep them. Eastman kept in the village, and Swett at . Holt's Rocks.
That this was not the first time that good citizens thought and said there were too many taverns in town, may be seen from the following let- ter, which well deserves a place in a history of the town. It is copied from the Court Files for 1696 : -
" Haverhill, December 26, 1696. Much Hond. Gentlemen :
I allways thought it great prudence and christianity in our former leaders and rulers, by their laws to state the numbers for publique houses in towns, and for regulation of such houses, as were of necessity, thereby to prevent all sorts, almost, of wickedness, which daily grow in upon us like a flood. But alas, I see not but that now, the care is over, and such (as to some places I may term them.) pest houses and places of enticement, (tho not so intended by the justices) to sin are multiplied. It is multiplied too openly, that the cause of it may be, the price of retailers fees &c. I pray what need of six retailers in Salisbury, and of more than one in Haverhill, and some other towns, where the people when taxes and rates for the country and ministers are collecting, with open mouth complain of povertie and being hardly dealt with, and yet I am fully informed, can spend much time, and spend their estate at such blind holes, as are clan- destinely and unjustly petitioned for, and more threaten to get licences, chiefly by repairing to a remote court, where they are not known or suspected, but pass for current, and thereby the towns are abused, and the youth get evil habits, and men sent out on country service, at such places
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
waste much of their time, yet expect pay for it, in most pernicious loytering and what, and sometimes by foolish if not pot-valliant firing and shooting off guns, not for the destruction of enemies, but to the wonderful distur- bance and affrightment of the inhabitants, which is not the service a scout is allowed and maintained for. Please to see, if possible, what good is done by giving license to Robert Hastings in such a by-place, about three miles from the publique house in town. The man himself I am sure has no cause, nor do I believe the town or travellers if they are sober men, will ever give the court thanks for the first grant to him, or the farther renewal thereof. But now the brovado is made, what is done is not enough, we must have a third tippling house at Peter Patey's about mid-way between the other two, which they boast as cocksure of, and have it is thought laid in, for this very end, an unaccountable store of cyder, rum, molasses and what not. It is well if this stock be not now spent on, in procure subscrip- tions for to obtain the villian's licence, which I fear knowing the man, we may be bold to say, wickedness will be practised and without control, and we must be quiet, or hated because of licences for something which they will enlarge to any and everything which is not, &c.
It would be good, if the law or rule of court made, were duly practised as to granting and renewing of licences, that none be meddled with but at the court to which the grand jurors do repair, belonging to the town where the man lives who petitions for license, so that the court may see what complaints are entered by bill, or better inquiries may be made. But now many that would speak if they had knowledge of the motion before the grant was made, cannot. I have done my part in court, as to what I heard of, to prevent such confiding licences to persons unknown. We need but one place to be granted for strangers, or else it were more than enough. As for the two last mentioned, none that knew the men or the places, or the business, of necessity there let be done, can judge them to conduce to good or accommodation of civilized men.
I am now God's prisoner, and can't come abroad. I have waited long to speak of those and other but as yet can't meet with an opportunity. You have nothing here of personal animosity of mine against any man, but zeal and faithfulness to my country and town, and to the young and rising generation that they be not too much at libertie to live and do as they list. I pray accept of the good intentions of, gentlemen, your humble servant,
N. Saltonstall. To the Justices in Quarter Session, sitting at Salem, December, 1696."
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
About this time, commenced the disputes and difficulties between the inhabitants of Haverhill, and those of Londonderry, and other places, in regard to the rightful ownership of certain lands lying between them. This " Border War " extended over a period of almost forty years; and, as a connected history of its rise and progress has never yet been pub- lished, it seems proper that we should devote a chapter to its special consideration, - which we now propose to do.
286
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
CHAPTER XVIII.
-
THE BOUNDARY DIFFICULTIES OF 1720 TO 1759.
1
THE first charter of the Massachusetts Colony granted all " that part of new England lying between three miles to the north of the Merrimack and three miles to the south of the Charles River, and of every part there- of, in the Massachusetts Bay ; and in length between the described breadth, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea."
A considerable portion of the land embraced in this patent had been previously granted by the same Council to Captain John Mason, and others; and the grounds upon which it was now re-sold do not appear. But, whatever may have been the reasons, the interference of the patent with those of a previous date, gave rise to perplexing embarrassments and long controversies.º
Under this charter, the Massachusetts colonists claimed that their north- ern boundary was three miles to the north of the northermost part of the Merrimack, and, from that point to extend east and west from the Atlan- tic to the South Sea. In order to ascertain this northermost point, a commission was appointed in 1639 to explore the river, which resulted in fixing upon a rock near the outlet of Winnipisiogee Lake,; as the most northern part of the river, and a certain tree three miles to the northward of the rock, as the point from which their line was to run due cast and west. This construction, as may readily be seen by reference to a map of New England, would give to Massachusetts the larger part of what is now New Hampshire and Vermont, and a large slice of Maine.
Among the miscellaneous papers in the State Archives, is an old map, or plan, without date, but evidently drawn for the purpose of showing this claim of Massachusetts. The following is an engraving of this plan,
" As late as 1759, (almost twenty years after the line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire had been settled) the Haverhill Proprietors chose a committee " to join with New Salem Committee to settle the title of that township with ye proprietors of John Tufton Mason's Right, & to go to Portsmouth and settle ye affair."
t Which they marked, and which has ever since been known, as Endicolt's Rock.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
upon a reduced scale. The portion of land marked " Country Land," in- cludes all that part of the present town of Methuen, which was not originally a part of Haverhill.
WINIPISAU POND
PENY COOK
MERRIMAK
ACUNTRY LAND
SOLSBURY!
AMSSURY
HAVE RHIL
DRAWCUT
With this impression as to their colonial bounds, Massachusetts granted the townships along the northern border of the Merrimac, and among the rest, Haverhill.
But the New Hampshire grantees placed a different construction upon the language of the charter, and claimed that the northern line could not in any place extend more than three miles to the north of the middle of the channel of the river. The territory, therefore, lying between these extremes, became " disputed territory." Subsequently. (1677) at a hear- ing before the King and Council, the agents for Massachusetts, by advice, so far modified their claim as to disclaim all right of jurisdiction beyond
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
the three miles north of the river according to its course ;" and it was determined that they had a right as far as the river extended. Massa- chusetts, however, continued to retain jurisdiction over those parts of those towns already granted, which were more than three miles north of the Merrimac,-of which New Hampshire continued to complain.
If the first charter of Massachusetts had continued, it is not probable that any different construction would ever have been started, and the dispute between the two colonies would have remained confined to the towns referred to. But the new charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, (1692,) defined the northern bound as " extending from the great river commonly called Monomack alias Merrimack on the north part and from three miles northward of the said river to the atlantic or western sea," &c. About the year 1720, New Hampshire began to claim that the line should commence at the point three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac, and from thence run dne west to the south sea. With the setting up of this new claim commenced a series of disputes, contentions, and suits, that lasted for nearly a third of a century, and at times nearly involved the inhabitants of the disputed territory in civil war.
The theatre of the most violent and determined contests during these troubles, was that part of Haverhill (as originally laid out) known as the " Peke," or " corner," or " northerly angle " of the town.
As early as 1722, we find the inhabitants of Londonderry making application to New Hampshire for more room, and they seem to have had a special desire for land in the vicinity of the " Peke of Haverhill."; The same year, a committee chosen by the General Court of Massachu- setts to look after encroachments upon the lands to the north of Merrimack River, belonging to the towns of Salisbury, Almsbury, and Haverhill, re- ported that " some Irish People " claimed the land " home to Merrimack River from Amoskeag falls," &c .;
In November, 1726, a petition was presented to the General Court from Orlando Bayley, Jacob Rowell, and seventy others of Haverhill and Ames- bury, in which they affirm that they have been prosecuted at law for land they had held for sixty years, on pretence that it was in the town of Kingston and Province of New Hampshire. Writs for trespass had been
* That is, their line should run parallel with the river from its mouth to the "crotch" (Endicott's Rock) and thence due north three miles, (to Endieott's Tree) and thence due west to the "South Sea." ¡ N. H. State Archives.
# As early as Deeember, 1720, the Commoners of Haverhill received information that "the Irish were settling on some of the fourth division lots."- Vide Prop. Rec.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
served on these petitioners, on the ground that their land was " more than three miles from Merrimack River," and they were tried in New Hamp- shire.
The General Court took measures to inform their agent at London in regard to the complaint, and voted that the Governor should remonstrate to the General Court of New Hampshire against such proceedings, and solicit that all such might be stayed until the question of boundary was fully settled.
That this did not have the desired effect, is fully shown from the fol- lowing extract from the Council Records of Massachusetts, for February, 1728 : -
" A petition of Richard Hazen Junior, James Pecker, Ebenr Eastman, & Nathl Peasleay, all of Haverhill, in the County of Essex, in behalf of the Inhabitants of the said Town, setting forth that notwithstanding the Ancient Grant of the sd Town the many confirmasions and settlements of their Bounds by the Government, divers of the Inhabitants of London . Derry within the Province of New Hampshire have encroached upon the Petitioners Lands mowed their meadows, cut down and destroyed their Timber, and erected several Houses on their Lands and have prosecuted the Inhabitants of Haverhill in the "said Province of New Hampshire for im- proving their own lands, and therefore Praying relief from this Board; Read, and
Whereas it appears to this Board that the contentions between the Inhab- itants of this Province and the Province of New Hampshire, bordering on the dividing Line, are arisen to that height that there is great danger that in their encroachments they will use violence on each other unless they are speedily discountenanced by the respective Governments: for preventing whereof
" Voted, that the Inhabitants of this Province bordering on the dividing Line and claiming Lands there be directed not to make any new Settlement on the said Lands or any improvements whatsoever thereon and to desist from all prosecutions in the Law till the further order of this Government or the settlement of the said Line, Provided the Government of New Hampshire do give the like or some other effectual directions to the Inhab- itants of that Province for the end aforesaid; And that His Excellency be desired to write to the Lieut Governor of the Province of New Hampshire on this affair.""
" From the same records, of the same year, we learn that Nathaniel Peasley was twice allowed money from the Province Treasury to defend himself against suits in New Hampshire, (ten pounds and thirty pounds) ; and that John Wainwright and Richard Saltonstall were also granted twenty pounds to pro- seente trespassers on Province Lands in Methuen.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
Accompanying Hazzen's petition was a plan, showing the portion of Haverhill claimed by Londonderry. The following is a reduced copy of the plan :
N.W.
CHESTER
PART OF
GRAVES HOUSEO
PART OF LONDONDERY
6
From this plan, it will be seen, that the land in dispute between the people of Haverhill and Londonderry, was principally confined to that part of Haverhill known as the " fifth division" land. The southern part of it, however, included a part of the "fourth division" land. The fifth division lots were laid out by the Haverhill Proprietors in January, 1721, and it was the entrance of the grantees upon, and their improvement of these lands, that led to the commencement of active contentions at this particular period.
The bounds of Londonderry, as given in Wheelwright's deed, of 1719, was as follows :- Down the Merrimack until it meets the line of Dunstable ; thence castward on Dunstable line, until it meets the line of Dracut; thence eastward on the line of Dracut " until it meets the line of Haverhil ; and extending northward upon Haverhill line until it meet with the line of Cheshire." From this we see, that, according to their own deed, the claim of Londonderry was unwarrantable. The town of Haverhill had been laid out fifty-two years, when the deed of Londonderry was given, and by that deed they were bounded upon Haverhill line.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL.
At a meeting of the Haverhill proprietors, held in January, 1729, a Committee was chosen to prosccute, "to final issue," all trespassers on the common lands; and another to perambulate the west line of the town."
At a meeting of the Proprietors, held April 7, 1729, "Wm Mudgete did remonstrate to the proprietors that he has lately been at great Cost & Charges in defending his Title to certain Lands in the fifth division which were & still are Claimed by the Irish & that the Matter is now in the Law undecided." He therefore prayed that the proprietors would "reimburse him what he has expended in Removing the said Irish out of his house." In answer to his petition, a committee was chosen to examine his accounts, and report. At a subsequent meeting, Mudgett was allowed forty-four. pounds seventeen shillings and a sixpence, from the treasury of the proprietors.
On the other side, we find, under date of August 27th of the same year, a petition from the inhabitants of Londonderry, to the Governor and Council of New Hampshire, in which they say that " Inasmuch as the Inhabitants of the Towne of Haverhill do often disturb sundry of your petitioners in their quiet possession of their lands granted to them by their charter, under their pretentions of a title thereto," they pray for assistance, on account of the "Law suits which are daily multiplied by them."
From the Records of the General Court of Massachusetts, for 1731, we learn that, June 29, the House received
" A Petition of Nathan Webster and Richard Hazzen Junr, Agents for the Proprietors of the Town of Haverhill, Setting forth their Ancient & Legal right to the Lands they possess in said Town, as also the late En- croachments of the Irish people settled in the Province of New Hampshire, who have Cutt down and Carried away great Quantities of their Hay and Timber, & other ways disturbed them in the improvements of their Lands, Praying Relief from this Court."
Paul Dudley, from the committee chosen to look into the matter, re- ported that, inasmuch as there was a hopeful prospect of a speedy settlement of the Line, the Governor should be directed to issue a Proclamation, directing the inhabitants of both provinces to forbear molesting each other for the present year.
In this recommendation the House concurred, but the Council refused to do so, and
" Voted, that inasmuch as there are Courts of Justice established by Law before whom affairs of that nature are properly cognizable, the Peti- tion be dismissed."
The fifth division lots were all bounded on the west by the west line of the town.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
Shortly after, commissioners of the two provinces met at Newbury, and attempted to settle the troublesome dispute, but without success. Upon this, the! New Hampshire commissioners appointed John Rindge, a mer- chant of Portsmouth, as agent, to present a petition to the King.º They determined to treat no more with Massachusetts.1
The following plan, or map, is a reduced copy of the one accompanying the petition of Rindge to the King and Council.
LONDONDERRY
CONTROVERTED LANDS.
KINGSTOWN
SOUHEGAN RIVER
DUNSTABLE
DUNSTABLE
SALISBURY
THIS IS THE DIVIDING LINE AS NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPPOSETH
ALMSBURY
HAVERHILL
DRACUT
NEWBURY
CHENSFORD
CONCORD
TO THIS PLACE THE TIDE FLOWS
BRADFORD
BED
FORD
After many delays, a royal order was issued, referring the matter to a board of commissioners. These commissioners " were all such as the New Hampshire agent proposed, five councellors from each of the governments of New York, Rhode-Island, & Nova Scotia. With the two former gov- ernments, Massachusetts was then in controversy about lines. The latter, it was said, was disaffected to charter governments. Connecticut, proposed by Massachusetts, was rejected because of a bias from their trade, religion, &c., which New Hampshire was afraid of."t
The time "and place for the meeting of the commission, was August 10th, at Hampton.# The Assembly of New Hampshire met on the 4th of
° October 31, 1731, the House of Representatives of New Hampshire confirmed the appointment of Rindge.
+ Hutchinson.
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