USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Hampstead > A memorial of the town of Hampstead, New Hampshire : historic and genealogic sketches. Proceedings of the centennial celebration, July 4th, 1849. Proceedings of the 150th anniversary of the town's incorporation, July 4th, 1899, Volume I > Part 12
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" Joseph Stephens Sr. and Jr. proposes to have six acres near Aaron Stephens."
" Isaac Bradley requests six acres near honey ball mill." (Honey ball mill was located where the saw mill of Mr. Ed- son E. Peaslee of Plaistow now is located.)
" James Heath asks about ten acres near Jonathan Harri- man's mill " (which was then near the home of the late Daniel Eaton, in Plaistow).
" Robert Ford requests ten acres, where there is a com- mon, near Hoghill mill."
" Thomas Eaton requests to have about ten acres, on west meadow hill."
" William Whittaker Jr. asked for ten acres on ye right
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hand of ye way yt leads to honeyball mill, joining to ye mill- pond."
" John Webster asks for forty acres in Providence neck," and so on, until all of the number were heard.
Most of the thirty-nine men had interest in the lands in the northern portion claimed by Haverhill ; had been soldiers, and had guarded the garrisons in the Indian troubles ; were not paid, nor were their muster rolls adjusted.
After much debate the committee were authorized to lay out the lands as requested.
" March 21, 1721, a tract of land above Hoghill was or- dered to be laid out to those men who have been out in long marches in time of war, and to such of the inhabitants as would make a speedy settlement upon it."
" Hogghill," so named by the Indians, is situated in Atkin- son, to the east of the road leading from Atkinson village to Hampstead, a short distance north of the home of Stillman H. Grover. The tract of land laid out comprised all of the lands of Haverhill north of the hill, to the Londonderry and Chester line, and several hundred acres to the east and west- ward. It was divided into lots of fifty acres each.
From 1721 to 1727-8, many families moved to the tracts laid out in the " northern " or "wooded " sections of Haver- hill, and at so great a distance from the meeting house, that they found it attended by great inconvenience to attend pub- lic worship in the winter, and secured a vote June 22, 1728, " that the northerly part of Haverhill should be sett off as a distinct precinct or parish." The conditions were that " they should determine within one month where their meeting house should be erected, and settle an Orthodox minister as soon as possible."
The General Court erected the north country into a Parish, August, 1729. The bounds were: "Beginning at the westerly end of Brandy brow, on the Amesbury line, from hence to the northerly end of the hither north meadow, as it is commonly called, thence to the fishing river, till it
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comes to the bridge by Mathew Harriman's, then running westerly to the bridge over the brook, by Nathaniel Marbles and then a straight line, one quarter of a point north, to the bounds of Haverhill, taking all of the lands within the town of Haverhill, north of said line." In other words, the North precinct included what is now Plaistow, Atkinson, and a good part of Hampstead.
November 1, 1730, forty-two families were dismissed from the first parish in Haverhill, for the purpose of uniting with the church in the " North Parish," which was organized No- vember 4, 1730. Rev. James Cushing, son of Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury, Mass., was ordained Dec. 3, 1730, and continued the pastorate until his sudden death May 13, 1764.
Many of the inhabitants favored a location near where the Church of the Holy Angels now stands at Westville, but the site chosen for " The New Meeting House " was nearly on the spot where the North Parish Congregational church now stands. It was built between the years 1728 and 1730. The old house was built of very heavy timbers, one of the cross beams was sufficiently large to be sawn into quarters to make the four upright standards of the present steeple. The house was 36 by 48 feet. The floors of the building were double, of plank and fastened down with wooden pins. The pulpit was on one side. There were three doors, one opposite the pulpit, and one at each end. The pews were square or box shaped, with a balustrade of turned work, on the top of the back seats. The building had no steeple, and was not plastered for some years. The last meeting was held in this building June 25, 1837.
The Parish in the North Precinct was called " Haverhill District " and annexed to New Hampshire when the long dis- puted boundary line between Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire was established in 1741, " to be three miles north of the Merrimac river, and parallel thereto."
The population had increased until there were 295 polls and estates in the district. Benning Wentworth was ap-
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pointed Governor of New Hampshire in 1741, and great en- couragement given to all petitioners to occupy the lands. New townships sprang up all over New Hampshire.
Grants of land were often without fees, and always without quit rents. The terms of the grants were "that the grantees should, within a limited time, erect mills and meeting houses, clear out roads, and settle ministers." In every township they reserved one right for a parsonage, another for the first settled minister, and a third for a school. They also reserved fifteen rights for themselves, and two for their attorneys, all of which were to be free from taxes till sold or occupied.
The Proprietors of Haverhill had made final divisions of the undivided lands in the northern section in 1720 and '21, among forty-four or more persons. Richard Hazen Jr., Robert Ford Sr., Robert and Benjamin Emerson, Nathaniel Harriman and brothers, Stephen Kent, Jonathan and Peter Eastman, John Woodbridge, John Johnson, Joseph Hadley Sr. and Jr., John and Nathan Webster, Jacob Bailey, Benjamin Kimball, and Hon. Richard Saltonstall being among the favored and largest land owners with from 300 to 400 acres each.
From 1721 to 1741 there was much buying and selling of lands, much laying out and taking up of tracts, often the terms of the sales being that there should be erected on the tract a log house or dwelling, and clear up a piece of land within one year.
Its high elevation of land, its beautiful ponds, and fruitful streams, its rich soil, and the abundance of valuable timber, which had given the section the romantic name of " Timber- lane," were no doubt the inducements that led to the early settling of the lands, and Peter Eastman and his followers to exclaim " Here it is beautiful, and here I should like to fix my dwelling."
They were principally young men, or those of middle life, robust, persevering, and adventurous. Men well fitted to en- counter the toils, endure the hardships and self-denial of com- mencing a new settlement.
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To rescue parts of the life story of some of those noble men and women gleaned from the truths and traditions that are handed down by so many families, for to a remarkable extent many of the early settlers are still represented by their de- scendants among us; we would in imagination take those descendants back to the time and place, and clothe them with the like circumstances, conditions and atmosphere, back all the years that lie between to where the deeds were doing, the thoughts thinking so that the personages whom thought and deed preserve can be realized in living presence.
The first definite trace of a settlement on the lands of Timberlane was when Robert Ford Jr., son of James and Lydia (Ross) Ford born in Haverhill, Mass., August 7, 1702, took possession of " ten acres. near Hogghill mill" in 1721. A cellar on the tract is still to be seen a short distance south- east from the home of Joseph G. Brown.
The locality where young Ford settled seems to have been a favorite camping ground for the Indians until the troubles in the frontier towns, when most of the men went on the war path leaving a few old men in their former places of abode. Indian arrows and tools of rude manufacture have been found quite recently on the shores of Hoghill brook and pond which passes near the early settlements in that section on its course from the eastern slope of "Hoghill" to the Spieket and Merri- mac rivers.
While Ford claimed the land by possession in 1721 it does not appear that he was a permanent settler in Timber- lane until 1727, when he brought his wife, Mary Stevens, to a tract of thirty-six acres on what is now known as the May- ley place, which he sold to Daniel Little Esq., March 11, 1733, with " the dwelling house thereon," on which tract Little, with his wife, Abiah Clement, and their nine children, made their homes. Their sons, Joseph and Samuel settled near, and the cellars of their homes, as well as the ruins of their tannery and fulling mill still remain.
Robert Ford Sr., one of the largest land owners in the
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southwestern part of Timberlane, sold tracts to William, Caleb, Benjamin and Nathaniel Heath, sons of John and Frances (Hutchens) Heath of Haverhill, in 1730, who took immediate possession.
Capt. George Little with wife, Mary Kimball, and their eight children settled a tract where Alexander King now re- sides, also a tract near the Island pond.
Robert Emerson and sons, Stephen and Benjamin, bought of Ford a large tract of seventy acres, June 20, 1734, on which they built a mill for sawing lumber at " Beaverdam," a little east of " Hoghill."
Benjamin and his wife, Sarah Philbrick, and some of their eight children settled a tract for their dwelling about one- fourth of a mile on the same brook south of what is known as the " old Bricket place " where their friends, the Rogers, settled soon after. One of the sons, Benjamin, born in 1716, married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Watts, a neighbor, and settled near his father's. One of their eleven children, Col. Benjamin, born in 1740, established his home with his wife, Ruth Tucker, at the homestead of the late Dr. J. C. East- man, and his mill near by on the brook. Here was the birth- place of their son, Benjamin Dudley Emerson, founder of our High school.
Another son, Robert, born in 1746, with his wife, Mary Webster, and their eight children, founded their homes on a tract where is now the residence and farm of Miss Alice A. Brown.
Edward Flint and his wife, Abiah Roberds, Nehemiah, David, Samuel, William, and Joseph Stevens made settle- ments, about 1734, on a tract north of the Island Pond. John Dustin settled near the late homestead of Abner Chand- ler.
John Mills was early on a tract bought of Ford, in 1735, at "Copps Corner " soon afterwards the home of Moses Copp who early settled east of the " wash pond."
About 1737 Joseph Brown of Newbury, came with his
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family, among them three sons, occupying the same farm and part of the dwelling house, that his great grandson Jos- eph G. Brown and wife, now look upon with pride and com- fort in their declining years. One son, Samuel, remaining at the homestead, the second son, Daniel, settled on the farm, where the late William Brown resided near by, and the third son, Simeon, cleared the farm that was until recently, for over fifty years the home of Mr. Luther Chase.
John Kent born in Gloucester, Mass., March 29, 1700, came with his wife, Mary Godfrey, and some of the younger of their ten children, made a home a short distance from Brown's lands. Their ninth child, Job, settled on the site of the Chand- ler homestead, whose ancestor Joseph Chandler made his home near Mr. Alonzo Hall's home in Atkinson.
Richard Hazen, one of the most influential in settling Timberlane and an extensive landowner, settled on twenty- four acres of what was laid out for four rights on " Flaggy meadow " as then called in 1728. He brought to his home, on the site of the present dwelling of Mr. John W. Garland, his wife, Sarah Clement, and eleven children.
Capt. John Hazen settled on a thirty acre tract north of his uncle Richard's home, which was later years known as the " Roach, and Bradley place," with his wife, Anne Sweet, and their nine children.
Job Rowell, owner and builder of Rowell's mill (afterwards known to us as the Brickett's, or Hutchens', or later, Hasel- tines's mill for sawing lumber), fixed his home east of the pond, with his wife, Priscilla Emerson, and their ten children.
At the same time that the tracts in the southwestern part was being occupied, the portion in the eastern part known as " Almsbury Peak," the territory in dispute, was as rapidly be- ing improved.
A record shows that before 1725, John, son of John and Hannah (Davis) Kezar, who were killed by the Indians in the Haverhill massacre, in 1697, " pitched his tent on the side of the hill and worked there shoemaking." His early home for-
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his wife, Judith Heath, and their thirteen children, was on the territory known to us as the " Handle."
Richard Collins, Moses Quimby, Benjamin, Jonathan, Jos- eph, and Thomas Eaton, also Israel Huse owned or occupied lands in that locality, before 1745.
Peter Morse, born Oct. 3, 1701, son of Dea. William and Sarah (Merrill) Morse, bought twenty-four acres of land of Stephen Johnson Sr., April 21, 1727. He cleared the land and fixed his dwelling about one half a mile north east of the present home of a great great grandson, Clarence B. Morse. The cellar of the house to which he brought his wife, Tam- osine Hale, and where their six children were born still re- mains, as also the ruins of the Morse mill on " Beaver Brook " near by. Their first born child (who tradition says " was the first male child born in town ") was Edmund, born Dec. 28, 1726. Afterwards Lieut. Edmund made a home near the site of the present Morse homestead. Another son, Lieut. Pe- ter, born July 7, 1739, settled near by.
Stephen and Nathan Webster owned tracts at Marshall's corner, where Mr. George Plummer now resides.
John Webster Sr. took up lands on the southerly side of Hoyt's corner adjoining the " Rubedgay meadows " so called in 1732.
Samuel Stevens and wife, Susanna Griffin, and their eight children were near neighbors of Webster in 1735.
John Webster Jr. and wife, Elizabeth Lunt, and their thir- teen children made their home on the Heath place recently occupied by George H. Hyde.
Lemuel Tucker was granted the lands from the Haverhill proprietors in 1721 that includes the "Pinnacle " bordering on the "Twelve rod way " east of it, now part of the farms of Mr. Tristram Little and Edward F. Noyes. From the " old Norfolk County " records and other sources I find that the " Twelve rod way " formerly called "Goodman Ayers cart way " was laid out as a road in 1663, from "Coffin's Ordi- nary " to the County highway which was opened soon after
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the settlement of Haverhill in 1640, between Haverhill and Salisbury. "Coffin's Ordinary " was a Tavern in 1650, a short distance above Rock's bridge in East Haverhill, Mass., at the point where the " King's Highway " crosses the Merri- mac river from Newbury.
The land from which the " Twelve rod way " was taken at the river end, was principally owned by the Davis family, ancestors of the Davis's in this town.
The " Twelve rod way " path was extended to the limits of Haverhill, in the " north country " passing through Tim- berlane following to the westward of " Darby Hill " brook, the " Pinnacle," and " Flaggy meadow," between the " Wash pond," and " Angly pond," then passing through " Kent's farm," to near the junction of the towns of Chester and Derry, Sandown and Hampstead.
Nathaniel Harriman, son of Mathew and Elizabeth (Swan) Harriman, sent out as one of the scouting party from Haver- hill in 1722, was one of the original claimants of four hundred acres, from the Haverhill proprietors. His lands extended east from the Harriman burying lands, near the home of Mrs. Daniel Ayer, nearly to the Kingston line. John, Richard, Stephen, and Abner, his brothers, settled on Dar- by Hill brook, which passed through the Harrimans' lands, on its course to Little river and the Merrimac. Darby Hill brook received its name from Darby Hill, so called before 1650, but now known as Jeffers land hill, from its early occupancy by James Jeffers, the first clerk of the Timberlane parish in 1748.
Samuel and James Shepherd, and Jonathan Hutchens, also located on the same brook, about a fourth of a mile east of the home of Mr. John Mills.
Not far from the eastern shores of the Wash pond were the early homes of several pioneer families. Ensign Otho Ste- vens and his wife, Abigail Kent, and four children from Glou- cester, Mass., bought a tract of land of Jonathan and Peter Eastman, in 1734, on what is now the Bailey woodlot. Jo-
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siah Davis and his wife, Dorothy Colby, and their nine children, and his brother Obediah Davis and wife, Sarah Colby, with their nine children, came to their locations near Otho Stevens, in 1734. The Davis's were sons of James and Hannah ( Wig- gin) Davis of Haverhill.
David Copp, born March 9, 1702, and Moses, born March 21, 1706, sons of Aaron and Mary (Heath) Copp, were near neighbors of Stevens and Davis, before 1735.
John Muzzey settled about 1742 where Giles F. Marble now resides. Moses Tucker and James Graves also made early homes in that vicinity as did John Harriman in 1738.
John Hogg made his home at what in later years has been known as the Capt. James Smith place at West Hampstead.
Peter Eastman, owner of extensive tracts of land in the central section of the district, was born in Haverhill, April 20, 1710, son of Jonathan and Hannah (Green) Eastman. He came about 1732, and made a home near Benjamin Kim- ball's, for his wife, Elizabeth Harriman, and their ten children, near the western shores of the Wash pond.
Joseph Hadley Sr. located on one hundred acres of land in 1732, where Mr. Verburght now resides, in the Peak district.
Joseph Hadley Jr. and wife, Martha Gile, and their eleven children, descended to the care of the homestead.
Thomas Williams and wife, Deliverance Merrill, and their seven children, bought and occupied lands in 1746, on the site of the present home of Ellsworth Hadley.
Amos Clark and his wife, Sarah Kelly, came about 1745. Their home with their nine children, was on the site of the present house, now occupied by their great granddaughters, Misses Sarah and Mary A. Clark.
William Moulton from Hampton bought the tract of land in 1742, near where his descendant, Everett H. Moulton, now resides.
Deacon Timothy Goodwin and his wife, Anna Gould, and their eight children, where Henry Morgan lives. Nathan Goodwin and wife, Rhoda Colby, and their seven children,
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where Charles Shannon and his brother lives. Abner Saw- yer came about 1748, to the farm that Mr. Anson Kimball now occupies. Edmund Sawyer came also about 1748, to the present farm of Mr. E. H. Moulton.
William Marshall and wife, Sarah Boswell, with their six children, occupied the same house as now is the home of a great granddaughter, Miss Ellen Marshall, in 1748, at what is known as Marshall's corner.
Zecheriah Johnson and wife, Susanna Chase, came from Haverhill, Mass., about 1737, and built a log house a few rods west from the old Johnson homestead now occupied by a great, granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Johnson Carter. He was born in Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 20, 1712, son of Joseph and Hannah (Barker) Johnson.
Stephen Johnson, senior and junior, settled near them. Their relative Col. John Johnson and wife, Sarah Haynes, settled on the present farm of Mr. John Mills, in 1742. He was son of Michael Johnson.
While it does not appear that Stephen Kent of Haverhill and Newbury was ever a dweller here, his possessions received the name of " Kent's Farm" in 1721, when he became owner of a large tract of land in that section. James Atwood, born in 1712, the centenarian, and his wife, Molly Lowell, and their thirteen children, settled early near the home of Mr. Horace Adams.
Samuel Worthen, senior and junior, also Jonathan and Dan- iel Roberds, settled on tracts purchased in 1742, as parts of Stephen Kent's 5th division of lands. The ruins of their home are still to be seen on or near the Adams farm.
The proprietors of Haverhill gave to Hon. Richard Salton- stall, a member of his Majesty's Council, one-half of the large island in the Island Pond, in consideration of valuable services rendered the proprietors; the remainder was sold to him for thirty shillings an acre, March 21, 1731. It was then es- timated to contain two hundred acres, and called " Island farm in Perch pond." It was sold by Saltonstall in 1734, to
4
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Jonathan and Peter Eastman and Peter Green, who sold it to Governor Benning Wentworth in 1741. It was owned by him and his heirs until 1780, from then till 1865, when it was purchased by the present owners, it was transferred seventeen times.
Hugh Tallant, an exile from Ireland, and servant of Col. Saltonstall, who set out the long rows of sycamore trees on the " Saltonstall seat," or what has been known in later years as the " Buttonwoods," on Water Street, Haverhill, came as a pioneer to the " Island Farm," in 1731. He later married a daughter of Daniel Little and made a settlement near the present home of Benj. W. Clark. He was known as " Fiddler Hugh." It is evident that misfortunes came to him, as we find a record November, 1757, of " a warrant given to John Dow Jr., constable, to warn out of the town of Plaistow, to go back to the town of Hampstead, where they belong, Hugh Tallant, his wife Mary, and their sons, Joseph, John and James." He died in Pelham, N. H.
Such are some of the early families of the Timberlane section in the Haverhill District, who were faithful to the injunction given them by the Puritan church, which was to first provide homes for their families, second, to erect a house in which to meet for the worship of their creator, and third, to provide for the education of their children. While their homes were being established, the country revealed a vast expanse of forest, dotted here and there with openings made by the axe of the early settler, controlled by the surveyor of woods, appointed by the crown in King William's reign, in accordance to an order sent to the governors of the provinces, for the preservation of the white pines. In 1708, a law was passed in New Hampshire, prohibiting the cutting of such pines as were twenty-four inches in diameter, at twelve in- ches from the ground, without leave of the surveyor, who was instructed by the queen to mark with a broad arrow those which might be fit for the use of the navy, and to keep a register of them.
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In each of these openings might be seen an unpretentious log cabin with the smoke curling upwards from its rude chim- ney, the home of the settler and his family. Sometimes a rude hovel or barn could be seen, as the family prospered.
Often want and toil was the story of the pioneer fathers to whom we are so largely indebted for our present prosper- ity. Their clothing was of the poorest quality, and their food of the coarsest kind ; still they worked amid poverty, united in a purpose which became strength, as they patiently and perseveringly labored and prayed.
They opened the forests, built the walls and fences, cleared the fields and roads, trained up Christian households, and planted their church and schools. We find evidence of an honest yeomanry, " a nation's pride," liberty loving, God- fearing, working out in their individual ways the problems of builders on new foundations. It was but in course with their life work that they were ambitious to be incorporated into a township or parish.
Accordingly, a petition was presented to " His Excellency Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and Commander-in- chief, in and over his Majesties Province in New Hampshire, the Honorable, his Majesties Council, July 29, 1746, in be- half of the committee, Richard Hazen, Daniel Little, and John Webster, and others to the number of about one hun- dred, who lived in that part of Haverhill District commonly called Timberlane, together with that part of South Hampton District usually called " Amesbury Peak," to see if that Hon- orable Court in their wisdom will incorporate into a town- ship."
The inhabitants, during the winter of 1733, sent the follow- ing request to the District Parish, that " by reason of the great distance of their dwellings from the meeting-house, they undergo many and great difficulties in attending the public worship of Almighty God " and " prayed that they be per- mitted to hold meetings by themselves." Their request was granted, and a rude but sacred log house was built by those
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faithful worshippers, which was used, as a convenient meeting house for winter use, about fifteen years. Tradition says it was built to accommodate twenty-five families, and stood on the spot where Mr. Daniel Emerson now resides.
Their aid and contributions were holden by the North Pre- cinct, until " at a Legall District meeting, february ye 9th, 1747," it was voted to set off Timberlane into a District Parish, to hold meetings by themselves. Richard Hazen in behalf of the people, petitioned Governor Wentworth, May 12, 1748, that they might be freed from any further aid and support of the North Parish minister.
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