This page is a part of the Lynn & Nahant town site.  Not for Commercial use.  All rights reserved.


"The History of Lynn including Nahant"
by Alonzo Lewis, - The Lynn Bard
 

 

Transcribed and submitted
by Shaun Cook


To help transcribe or submit information, pleasee-mail Shaun Cook.

Chapter V

War with the Pequod Indians - Sandwich settled - Rev. Thomas Cobbet installed - Lynn named - Lands divided - Lord Brook's Death - Lynnfield, Hampton, Reading, Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Southampton settled - Lineage of Lewis - Ladies' Dresses regulated - New Inhabitants - Lady Moodey - Life of Hon. John Humfrey - 1636 to 1642.


They spread broad maps of cities, where
Once waved the forest trees.
                                                   Morris



     Some of the Pequot Indians, having committed several murders upon the whites, induced the people of Massachusetts to commence a war upon them.  On the sixteenth of June, 1636, Governor Henry Vane ordered Lieut. Edward Howe to have his men in readiness; and in August, four companies of volunteers were called out, one of which was commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Turner, of Lynn.  They were directed to demand the murderers, with a thousand fathom of wampum, and some of the Indian children, as hostages.  At Block Island, they destroyed seven canoes, sixty wigwams, and many acres of corn, and killed one Indian.  At New London, they burnt the canoes and wigwams, killed thirteen Indians, and returned on the fourteenth September.

1637.  On the eighteenth of April, 175 men were raised for a second expedition against the Pequods.  Boston furnished 26, Lynn 21, (sixteen at first and five afterward,) Cambridge 19, Salem 18, Ipswich 17, Watertown 14, Dorchester 13, Charlestown 12, Roxbury 10, Newbury 8, Hingham 6, Weymouth 5, Marblehead 3, and Medford 3.  The Connecticut troops attacked the Pequods on the twenty-sixth of May, a little before daybreak.  Sassacus, the Pequod Sachem, had built a rude fort, surrounded by a palisade of trees.  The soldiers came to the fort in silence, discharged their muskets on the slumbering natives, and then set fire to the camp.  Stoughton, who commanded the expedition, says, of 'six or seven hundred Indians,' many of whom were women, and old men, and helpless children, only 'about seven escaped.'  The soldiers from Lynn arrived three days after the massacre, and returned on the twenty-sixth of August.  Sassacus, after this desolation of his tribe, fled to the Mohawks; where he was soon afterward murdered, as it was supposed, by an Indian of the Narragansett tribe, who were his enemies.  Thus perished Sassacus, the last and bravest of the Pequods; a chief, who in the annals of Greece would have received the fame of a hero, - in the war of American freedom, the praise of a patriot.
     On the twenty-third of June, Governor Winthrop visited Lynn, and was escorted by the inhabitants to Salem.  He returned on the twenty-eighth; traveling in the night, in consequence of the heat, which was so excessive that many persons died.  Graham says, there were, at this time, but thirty-seven ploughs in the colony, most of which were at Lynn.
     The members of the Quarterly Court, this year, were John Humfrey and Edward Howe.  In a tax, of L400, the proportion of Lynn was L28.16.  The General Court ordered tlat no person should make any cakes or buns, 'except for burials, marriages, and such like special occasions.'
     This year a large number of people removed from Lynn, and commenced a new settlement at Sandwich.  The grant of the town was made on the third of April, by the colony of Plymouth.  'It is ordered, that these ten men of Saugus, namely, Edmund Freeman, Henry Feake, Thomas Dexter, Edward Dillingham, William Wood, John Carman, Richard Chadwell, William Almy, Thomas Tupper, and George Knott, shall have liberty to view a place to sit down on, and have land sufficient for three score families, upon the conditions propounded to them by the Governor and Mr. Winslow.'  Thomas Dexter did not remove, but the rest of the above named went, with forty-six other men from Lynn.
     The Rev. Thomas Cobbet arrived from England, on the twenty-sixth of June, and was soon after installed in the ministry, as a colleague with Mr. Whiting.  The two ministers continued together eighteen years.  Mr. Whiting was styled Pastor, and Mr. Cobbet, teacher.
     This year the name of the town was changed from Saugus to LYNN.  The record of the General Court, on the fifteenth of November, consists of only four words:  'Saugust is called Lin.'  This relates merely to the change of the name, the town having been incorporated in 1630.  The name was given in compliment to Mr. Whiting, who came from Old Lynn, in Norfolk County, England. 
     Old Lynn, in England, was called Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn.  It was patronized by King John, who, in 1215, received great service from that town in his war against France.  'He granted them a mayor, and gave them his own sword to be carried before him, with a silver gilt cup, which they have to this day.'  (Camden's Britannia.)  The ancient Britons gave it the name of Lhyn, a word signifying a lake or sheet of water.  Camden says, it was 'so named from its spreading waters.'  Speed calls the waters before the old town, 'the Washes of Linne.  (Speed's Chronicles of England.)  The Romans, on their conquest, called it Durobrivem, (Antoninus' Itinerary.)  a word signifying a place of water.  All who have seen our Lynn, will admit how appropriate is its name to its situation.
     An old British legend of 1360, asserts that the 'Friar of Linn,' by magic art, went to the North Pole, and came to America.  There is a very beautiful ballad, of an early date, entitled 'The Heire of Linne.'  I have only room for two stanzas.
          The bonnie heire, the weel faured heire,
             And the weary heire of Linne,
          Yonder he stands at his father's gate,
             And naebody bids him come in.
          Then he did spy a little wee lock
             And the key gied linking in,
          And he gat goud and money therein,
             To pay the lands o' Linne." 
     A town meeting was held this year, in which Daniel Howe, Richard Walker, and Henry Collins, were chosen a committee to divide the lands; or, as it was expressed in the record, 'To lay out ffarmes.'  The land was laid out in those parts of the town best adapted to cultivation; and the woodlands were reserved as common property, and called the 'town common,' not being divided until sixty-nine years after.

1638.   The committee appointed by the town to divide the lands, completed their task, and a book was provided, in which the names of the proprietors, with the number of acres allotted to each, were recorded.  That book is lost; but a copy of the first three pages has been preserved in the files of the Quarterly Court, at Salem, from which the following is transcribed.  I have taken the justifiable liberty, in this instance, to spell the words correctly, and to supply a few omissions, which are included in brackets. The word 'ten,' which is added to many of the allotments, implies that a separate lot of ten acres was granted.

PAGE I.
     'These lands following were given to the inhabitants of the town of Lynn, Anno Domini 1638.
     To the Right Honorable the Lord Brook, 800 acres, as it is estimated.
     To Mr. Thomas Willis, upland and meadow, 500 acres, as it is estimated.
     Mr. Edward Holyoke, upland and 500 acres, as it is estimated.
     Henry Collins, upland and meadow, 80 acres, and ten. 
     Mr. [Joseph] Floyd, upland and meadow, 60 acres, and ten.
     Edmund and Francis Ingalls, upland and meadow, 120 acres.
     Widow Bancroft, 100 acres.
     Widow Hammond, 60 acres.
     George Burrill, 200 acres.
     John Wood, 100 acres.
     Thomas Talmage, 200.
     Nicholas Brown, 200.
     William Cowdrey, 60.
     Thomas Laighton, 60. 
     John Cooper, 200.
     Allen Breed, 200. 
     John Pool, 200
     Edward Howe, 200 and ten.
     Thomas Sayre, 60. 
     Job Sayre, 60. 
     Thomas Chadwell, 60. 
     William Walton, 60. 
     Christopher Foster, 60. 
     William Ballard, 60. 
     Josias Stanbury, 100.
     Edmund Farrington; 200. 
     Nicholas Potter, 60. 
     William Knight, 60. 
     Edward Tomlins, 200, and twenty. 
     [' Mr.'] South, 100. 
     Boniface Burton, 60.  
     John Smith, 60. 
     Mr. Edward Howell, 500.

PAGE II.

     To Nicholas Batter, 60.
     Mr. [Richard] Sadler, 200, and the rock by his house.
     Joseph Armitage, 60.
     Godfrey Armitage, 60.
     To Matthew West, upland and meadow, 30, and ten.
     George Farr, 30, and ten.
     James Boutwell, 60 acres.
     Zachary Fitch, 30, and ten.
     Jarrett Spenser, 30 acres.
     Jenkin Davis, 30, and ten.
     George Taylor, 30, and ten. 
     [William] Thorn, 30, and ten. 
     Thomas Townsend, 60.
     Thomas Parker, 30, and ten.
     Francis Lightfoot, 30, and ten.
     Richard Johnson, 30, and ten.
     Robert Parsons, 30, and ten. 
     Edward Burcham, 30, and ten.
     Anthony Newhall, 30.  
     Thomas Newhall, 30. 
     Thomas Marshall, 30, and ten. 
     Michael Spenser, 30. 
     Timothy Tomlins, 80. 
     [William] Harcher, 20. 
     Richard Roolton, 60. 
     [Nathaniel] Handforth, 20. 
     Thomas Hudson, 60. 
     Thomas Halsye, 100.  
      Samuel Bennett, 20.
     John Elderkin, 20.
     Abraham Belknap, 40. 
     Robert Driver, 20. 
     Joseph Rednap, 40. 
     [John] Deacon, 20. 
     Philip Kertland, senior, 10.

PAGE III.

     To Philip Kertland, junior, 10.
     [Goodman] Crosse, 10.
     Hugh Burt, 60.
     [Goodman] Wathin, 10.
     Richard Brooks, 10.
     Francis Godson, 30.
     George Welbye, -
     William Partridge, upland, 10 acres.
     Henry Gains, 40.
     Richard Wells, 10.
     [Joseph] Pell, 10.
     John White, 20.
     Edward Baker, 40.
     James Axey, 40.
     William Edmonds, 10.
     Edward Ireson, 10.
     Jeremy Howe, 20.
     William George, 20.
     Nathaniel Whiteridge, 10. 
     George Frail, 10. 
     Edmund Bridges, 10. 
     Richard Longley, 40. 
     Thomas Talmage, junior, 20. 
     Thomas Coldham, 60.
     Adam Hawkes, upland, 100. 
     Thomas Dexter, 350. 
     Daniel Howe, upland and meadow, 60. 
     Richard Walker, upland and meadow, 200. 
     Ephraim Howe, next to the land of his father, upland, 10. 
     [Thomas] Ivory, 10. 
     Timothy Cooper, 10. 
     Samuel Hutchinson, 10, by estimation. 
     Mr. Samuel Whiting, the pastor, 200. 
     Mr. Thomas Cobbet, the teacher, 200.
     'These three pages were taken out of the town book of the Records of Lynn, the 10th. 1 mo. Anno Domini 59, 60, [March 10, 1660,] by me,
          ANDREW MANSFIELD, Town Recorder.'

      The 'Lord Brook' to whom the grant of 800 acres was made, 'was one of those patriots,' says Ricraft, 'who so ardently longed for liberty, that he determined to seek it in America.'  He was shot with a musket-ball, through the visor of his helmet, in the civil war of 1642, while storming the Cathedral of Litchfield.  Sir Walter Scott alludes to this sacrilege, in Marmion.
          - When fanatic Brook
          The fair cathedral stormed and took:
          But thanks to heaven and good St. Chad,
          A guerdon meet the spoiler had.
     'He was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad's Cathedral, on St. Chad's day, and received his death wound in that very eye with which he had said he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in England.''
     Though the 8680 acres of land thus laid out among 100 families, comprised the best portion of Lynn and Saugus, the people thought they had not sufficient room, and petitioned the court for more.  On the thirteenth of March, 'Lynn was granted 6 miles into the country; and Mr. Hawthorne and Leift Davenport to view and inform how the land beyond lyeth, whether it be fit for another plantation or no.'  The land laid out by this order was for many years called Lynn End, and now constitutes the town of Lynnfield.  The court afterwards very prudently ordered, that the Governor and Assistants should 'take care that the Indians have satisfaction for their right at Lynn.'
     The preceding winter was extremely severe, the snow continued from November sixteenth to the fourth of April,  and the spring was so cold that the farmers were compelled to plant their corn 'two or three times.'
     On the first of June, between the hours of three and four in the afternoon, there was an earthquake.  It shook the whole country very heavily, making a noise like the rattling of coaches, and continued about four minutes.  The earthquake was very great; people found it difficult to stand, and furniture and chimneys were thrown down. Other smaller shocks occurred for several weeks after.
     On the same day, the 'Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company' was formed at Boston.  Daniel Howe, of Lynn, was chosen Lieutenant.  Other members of this company from Lynn have been - in 1638, Nathaniel Turner, Edward Tomlins, Richard Walker; in 1639, Samuel Bennett; in 1640, John Humfrey, Thomas Marshall; in 1641, John Humfrey, jun., Robert Bridges, Adam Otley; in 1642, John Wood; in 1643, Benjamin Smith; in 1648, John Cole; in 1694, Thomas Baker; in 1717, Benjamin Gray; in 1822, Daniel N. Breed, George Johnson, Ebenezer Neal.
     A settlement was this year begun at Hampton, in New Hampshire, by Rev. Stephen Bachiler, Christopher Hussey, and fourteen others, most of whom had been inhabitants of Lynn.
     Many farmers pastured their cows in one drove, and watched them alternately.  When it came to Mr. John Gillow's turn, an ill-minded man detained him in conversation, till the cows strayed into a field of corn, where two of them ate so much that they became sick, and one of them died.  It happened that these two cows belonged to the man who had occasioned the mischief, who complained of Mr. Gillow before the Court of Assistants, at Boston, on the seventh of September.  As it was proved, that the man had boasted of having designed that the cattle should stray, the case was decided in Mr. Gillow's favor.
     On the sixth of September, Mr. John Humfrey sold to Emanuel Downing, of Salem, 'the 2 ponds and so much high ground about the ponds, as is needful to keep the Duck Coys, privately set, from disturbance of ploughmen, heardsmen, and others passing by that way, which he may enclose, so as to take not in above fifty acres of the upland round about the same.'  These two ponds were probably Coy and Deep ponds, near Forest river.  In the Registry, at Salem, where the above is recorded, Mr. Humfrey is called 'of Salem,' but that is not a copy of the original grant.  In the early time, the deeds were not recorded literally, but only a sketch of them was entered by the clerk.  A common form of beginning deeds then was, 'To all Christian People.'  One deed is recorded, which commences thus - 'To all Christian People, Fishermen, and Indians.'

     1639.   Among those who promoted the settlement of New England, were several of the name of Lewis.  Some of them were in the country at a very early period, but the name first appears at Lynn, this year.  I have copious memoirs of this family, from which I shall make a few brief extracts, that I may not be like the poet described by Leyden, who 
          'Saved other names, and left his own unsung.'
      When the whole country was a wilderness, Thomas Lewis came from Wales to establish a plantation.  He made his first visit to Saco, then called by the Indians, Saga-dahock, in 1628; and on the twelfth of February, 1629, received the following grant, a copy of which was preserved in the archives of Massachusetts; and which I am more desirous to record here, because Mr. Folsom, the excellent historian of Saco, appears not to have known of its existence.
     'To all Christian People, to whom this present writing indented shall come, The Council for the Affairs in New England... in consideration that THOMAS LEWIS, Gentleman, hath already been at the charge to transport himself and others to take a view of New England... for the bettering of his experience in the advancing of a Plantation, and doth now wholly intend by God's assistance, to plant there, both for the good of his Majesty's realms and for the propagation of the Christian Religion among those infidels; and in consideration that the said Thomas Lewis, together with Captain Richard Bonython, and their associates, have undertaken, at their own proper costs and charges, to transport Fifty Persons thither, within seven years... have given all that part of the Maine Land, commonly called and known by the name of SAGADAHOCK... containing in breadth, from northeast to southwest, along by the Sea, Four Miles in a straight line, accounting seventeen hundred and three score yards, according to the standard of England, to every mile, and Eight English Miles upon the Maine Land, upon the north side of the River Sagadahock... He and they yielding and paying unto our Sovereign Lord, the King, one fifth part of gold and silver, one other fifth part to the Council aforesaid.
     This deed was signed by Edward Gorges; and the Rev. William Blackstone, of Boston, was named attorney for the Council.  This grant included 32 square miles, and comprised the whole of the town of Saco.  Thomas Lewis died in 1640.  Judith, his eldest daughter and heiress, married James Gibbins.
     William Lewis was descended from a very respectable family in Wales.  His descendants enjoy great satisfaction in being able to trace their descent from a very high antiquity.  He came to Boston in 1636.  In the year 1640, he and his wife Amy are recorded by Rev. John Eliot, of Roxbury, as attendants at his church.  In 1653, he became one of the proprietors of the pleasant inland town of Lancaster, on the Nashaway river, and was the third person in regard to wealth among the first settlers of that town.  He died December 1, 1671.  He had nine children; 1. John, born Nov. 1, 1635.  2. Christopher, born Dec. 2, 1636.  3. Lydia, born Dec. 25, 1639.  4. Josiah, born July 28, 1641.  5. Isaac, born April 14, 1644.  6. Mary, baptized Aug. 2, 1646.  7. Hannah, baptized March 18, 1648.  8. Mordecai, born June 1, 1650.  His son John returned to Boston, and built a house on land which his father had purchased of Governor Richard Bellingham.

Lineage of Alonzo Lewis

William Lewis, of Wales
Amy, his wife

John      Christopher      Lydia      Josiah      Isaac, of Boston      Mary      Hannah      Mordecai
              m. Mary Davis
        
Mary      Isaac, of Boston      Joseph      John      Abraham
m. Hannah Hallett                                    

Isaac      John      Hannah      William      Abijah      Mary      Nathan, of Boston      Joseph
                                                                                m. Mary Newhall

Lois      Nathan      John      Thomas      David      Henry      Benjamin      Zachariah, of Lynn      Stephen      William
                                                                                 m. Mary Hudson

Alonzo Lewis, of Lynn      Irene      Mary      William
m. Frances Maria Swan                                             

Alonzo     Frances Maria      Aurelius      Llewellyn      Arthur      Lynnworth
 


     Edmund Lewis was one of the early proprietors of Watertown, and was admitted a freeman, May 25, 1636.  On the fourteenth of October, 1638, he was one of the committee appointed to lay out the lands in that town.  He came to Lynn in 1639, and was the first settler in Lewis street.  He died in January, 1651.  The name of his wife was Mary, and his children were John, Thomas, James and Nathaniel.  His descendants remain.  The name of Lewis is the fifth in Lynn, in regard to numbers.
     George Lewis came from East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, England.  He was at Plymouth, in 1633.  He removed to Scituate, and afterward to Barnstable.  He married Sarah Jenkins, in England, and had nine children, of whom Joseph and John were killed by the Indians, in the war of 1675 - 6.  Dr. Winslow Lewis, of Boston, descended from this family.
     On the fourteenth of January there was an earthquake.
     Another grant of land was made to the town, by the General Court, on the seventh of September.  'The petition of the Inhabitants of Lynn, for a place for an inland plantation, at the head of their bounds is granted them, 4 miles square, as the place will affoard; upon condition that the petitioners shall, within two years, make some good proceeding in planting, so as it may be a village, fit to contain a convenient number of inhabitants, which may in dewe time have a church there; and so as such as shall remove to inhabit there, shall not withall keepe their accommodations in Linn above 2 years after their removal to the said village, upon pain to forfeit their interest in one of them at their election; except this court shall see fit cause to dispense further with them.'  The settlement thus begun was called Lynn Village, and included Reading, South Reading, and North Reading. 
     Two other settlements were this year begun by people who removed from Lynn; one at Barnstable, and the other at Yarmouth.
     The General Court allowed the town fifty pounds to build a bridge over Saugus river, and fifty shillings annually to keep it in repair.  They forbade the people to spread bass or codfish upon their lands, as they had been accustomed to do, for the enrichment of the soil.  A tax of one thousand pounds was laid, of which the proportion of Lynn was L79.19.9.  On the third of December, the court laid a fine of ten pounds upon the town, for not maintaining a watch against the Indians.
     The following order passed by the General Court for the regulation of women's dresses, will be interesting to my lady readers.  'No garment shall be made with short sleeves; and such as have garments already made with short sleeves, shall not wear the same, unless they cover the arm to the wrist; and hereafter no person whatever shall make any garment for women with sleeves more than half an ell wide;' that is, twenty-two and a half inches.  Our early legislators were anxious to keep the minds, as well as the persons, of their women 'in good shape.'  It seems that in 1637, the ladies of Boston were accustomed to meet for social improvement; on which Governor Winthrop remarks, 'That though women might meet, some few together, to pray and edify one another, yet such a set assembly, where sixty or more did meet every week, and one woman in a prophetical way, by resolving questions of doctrine, and expounding scripture, took upon her the whole exercise, was agreed to be disorderly, and without rule.'  What would they have thought in these later times, when women write books, and supply our pulpits.  It might have been well for human welfare, if our legislators had always been as harmlessly employed, as when they were cutting out dresses for the ladies. 

      1640.    Many new inhabitants appear at Lynn about this time.  The great tide of immigration ceased in 1641, and after that time not many came over. 
      
     Hugh Alley , farmer, lived on the corner of Market anf Front streets.  He had a son Hugh, who married Rebecca Hood, December 9, 1681, and had seven children. Solomon, born October 11, 1682; Jacob, born January 28, 1683; Eleazer, born November 1, 1686; Hannah, born August 16, 1689; Richard, born July 31, 1691; Joseph, born June 22, 1693; Benjamin, born February 24, 1695. 
     John Alley, farmer, lived in Market street, and had five children.  John, born in January, 1675; Hannah, born January 22, 1679; Rebecca, born May 28, 1683; Hugh, born February 15, 1685; William, born July 14, 1683.  The descendants of Hugh and John Alley are very numerous. 
     Samuel Aborne , a farmer, resided at first on the Common, and afterward removed to Lynnfield, where his descendants remain.
     Robert Bridges was admitted a freeman, June 2, 1641.  In the same year he was a member of the Ancient Artillery Company and a captain in the militia.  He had a large share in the Iron Works.  In 1644, he was chosen representative, and appointed a member of the Quarterly Court at Salem.  In 1646, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the next year became an Assistant, in which office he continued until his death, in 1656.
     Lieut. Thomas Bancroft, son of widow Bancroft, had two children; Ebenezer, born April 26, 1667; Mary, born May 16, 1670.  He died March 12, 1705.  His wife Elizabeth died May 1, 1711.  His descendants remain.
     William Bassett, farmer, died March 31, 1703.  He had two sons; William, who married Sarah Hood, October 25, 1675; and Elisha, who married Elizabeth -.  His descendants remain.
     William Clark, farmer, died March 5, 1683.  His children were Hannah, John, Lydia, Sarah, Mary, and Elizabeth. His descendants remain.
     John Diven died October 4, 1684.  He had a son John.
     Thomas Farrar, farmer, lived in Nahant street, and died February 23, 1694.  His wife Elizabeth, died January 8, 1680.  He had one son, Thomas, who married Abigail Collins, March 3, 1681; and four daughters; Hannah, Sarah, Susanna, and Elizabeth.
     John Fuller came from England, with his brother Samuel, in 1630, and when they arrived in Boston, 'only seven huts were erected.'  After residing there several years, Samuel went to Scituate, and John, in 1644, came to Lynn, and settled at the western end of Waterhill street.  He was chosen Representative in 1655, and Clerk of the Writs in 1662.  He died June 29, 1666.  The name of his wife was Elizabeth, and he had five children - Lieut. John Fuller, who married Elizabeth Farrington, and died April 24, 1695; William; Susanna; Elizabeth; James.  Several of his descendants have borne respectable offices, and some of them remain. 
     Zaccheus Gould, owned at one time, the Mills on Saugus river.  He had a son Daniel.
     John Gillow died in 1673.  The name of his wife was Rose.  He had two sons, Benjamin and Thomas
     Nathaniel Hathorne had two children; Ebenezer, who married Esther Witt, December 26, 1683, and Nathaniel.
     Richard Haven, farmer, lived near the Flax pond.  His wife Susanna, died February 7, 1682.  His children were Hannah, born 1645; Mary, Joseph, Richard, Susanna, Sarah, John, Martha, Samuel, Jonathan, Nathaniel and Moses.  Several of his sons were among the first settlers of Framingham.
     Joseph Holloway died November 29, 1693.  He had a son Joseph, who married Mary -, and had four children.  Mary, born April 16, 1675; Samuel, born November 2, 1677; Edward, born February 1, 1683. John, born October 11, 1686.  His descendants remain, and spell their name Hallowell.
     Robert Howard had a son Edward, who married Martha -, and had two children; Amos, born April 16, 1696; Jane, born March 4, 1699.  His descendants remain.
     Richard Hood, came from Lynn in England.  He lived in Nahant street, and died September 12, 1695.  He had three sons; Richard, born 1670; Joseph, born July 8, 1674; Benjamin, born January 3, 1677.  His descendants remain, and are among the principal inhabitants of Nahant.  In those early days, a young man, who was inclined to indulge in the laudable custom of courting, went to visit a young lady of this family named Agnes.  As he was returning, late one evening, he was overheard saying to himself - ' Well, so far proceeded towards courting Agnes.'  This phrase became common, and has been introduced into an English comedy.
     Edward Ireson died December 4, 1675.  His son Benjamin married Mary Leach, August 1, 1680, and had a son Edward, born April 9, 1681.
     Thomas Keyser was mate of a vessel which sailed from Boston.  Governor Winthrop tells a story of one of his men, who was whipped for stealing a gold ring, and some other articles from him at Portsmouth.
     Andrew Mansfield came from Exeter, in England, to Boston, in 1636.  He came to Lynn, in 1640.  He was a farmer, and lived in Boston street.  The neighborhood in which he lived was called Mansfield's End.  He was town clerk in 1660, and died in 1692, aged 94 years.  He had a son Andrew, who was Representative in 1680, and who married Elizabeth Conant, January 10, 1681.  His descendants remain.
     John Mansfield, a tailor, freeman in 1643, died in 1671, aged 52 years.
     Lady Deborah Moody came to Lynn, in 1640.  Five years before, she went from one of the remote counties in England, to London, where she remained in opposition to a statute, which enjoined that no persons should reside, beyond a limited time, from their own homes.  On the twenty-first of April, the court of the star-chamber ordered, that 'Dame Deborah Mowdie, and the others, should return to their hereditaments in forty days, in the good example necessary to the poorer class.  On the fifth of April, 1640, soon after her arrival at Lynn, she united with the church at Salem.  On the thirteenth of May, the General Court granted her 400 acres of land.  In 1641, she purchased Mr. John Humfrey's farm, 'called Swampscot,' for which she paid L1,100.  Lechford, in 1641, says, 'Lady Moody lives at Lynn, but is of Salem church.  She is, good lady, almost undone, by buying Master Humphries' farm, Swampscot.'  Sometime afterward she became imbued with the erroneous idea, that the baptism of infants was a sinful ordinance, for which, and other opinions, she was excommunicated.  In 1643, she removed to Long Island.  Governor Winthrop says, 'the Lady Moodye, a wise, and anciently religious woman, being taken with the error of denying baptism to infants, was dealt with by many of the elders and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, whereof she was a member; but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, she removed to the Dutch, against the advice of all her friends.'  After her arrival at Long Island, she experienced much trouble from the Indians, her house being assaulted by them many times.  Her wealth enabled her to render assistance to Governor Stuyvesant, of New York, in some difficulties which he encountered in 1654; and so great was her influence with him, that he conceded the nomination of the magistrates that year to her.  She was of a noble family, and had a son, Sir Henry Moody .  With the exception of her troubling the church with her religious opinions, she appears to have been a lady of great worth.
     Robert Rand was a farmer, at Woodend.  He died November 8, 1694.  His wife, Elizabeth, died August 29, 1693.  His children were Robert, Zachary, Elizabeth, and Mary, and his descendants remain.
     Henry Rhodes was a farmer, and lived on the western side of Saugus river.  He was born in 1608, and had two sons.  Jonathan died April 7, 1677.  Henry had a son Henry.  Their descendants remain.
     John Tarbox had two sons; John; and Samuel, who married Rebecca Armitage,  November 14, 1665, and had eighteen children.  Samuel died September 12, 1715, aged 93 years.  His descendants remain. 
     Captain Shubael Walker was buried January 24, 1689.  He lived at the Swampscot farms.
     John Witt died in December, 1675.  His children were Ann, Elizabeth, Sarah, Mary, Martha, John who married Elizabeth Baker, January 14, 1676, and Thomas who married Bethia Potter, February 26, 1675.  His descendants remain. 
     Thomas Welman died in 1672.  His children are Abigail, Isaac, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Mary
     Other inhabitants were, Andrew Allen, Theophilus Bayley, died 1694, John Cole, Hugh Churchman, died 1644, Wentworth Daniels, Henry Fitch, Daniel Fairchild, John Farrington, Abraham Ottley, Adam Ottley, Thomas Gaines, Tobias Haskell, James Hubbard, William Hubbard, Joseph Howe, William Knight, Michael Lambard, Robert Mansfield, Thomas Mansfield, Michael Milner, went to Long Island in 1640, Richard Mower, Thomas Putnam, Richard Pray, Quentin Pray, Thomas Purchis, Edward Paine, Hugh Stacey, John Stacey, George Taylor, William Taylor, John Tilton, Wiliam Tilton, Daniel Trumbull, Nathaniel Tyler, William Wells, Jonathan Witt.  
     In the short space of ten years from its settlement, we have seen six other towns deriving their origin from Lynn; yet the place continued to abound with inhabitants, and this year beheld the commencement of the seventh.  About 'forty' families, 'finding themselves straightened,' left the town with the design of settling a new plantation.  They invited Mr. Abraham Pierson, of Boston, to become their minister, who with seven of the emigrants entered into a church covenant before they left Lynn.  They sailed in a vessel commanded by Captain Daniel Howe, to Scout's Bay, in the western part of Long Island, where they purchased land of Mr. James Forrett, agent of Lord Stirling, and agreed with the Indians for their right.  On receiving information of this, the Dutch laid claim to that part of the island, on account of a previous purchase of the Indians, and sent men to take possession, who set up the arms of the Prince of Orange on a tree.  The Lynn people, disregarding the claims of the Dutch, cut down the trees and began to build.  Captain Howe likewise took down the Prince's arms, and instead thereof an Indian drew a very 'undhandsome face.'  This conduct highly incensed the Dutch governor, William Kieft, whom Mr. Irving, in one of his humorous works, has characterized by the appellation of 'William the Testy,' but whom Mr. Hubbard denominates 'a discreet man,' who on the thirteenth of May, sent Cornelius Van Ten Hoven the secretary, the undersheriff, a sergeant, and twenty-five soldiers, to break up the settlement.  They found eight men, with a woman and an infant, who had erected one cottage, and were engaged in building another.  They took six of the men, whose names were John Farrington, William Harcher, Philip Kertland, Nathaniel Kertland, Job Sayre, and George Wells, and brought them before the governor.  These he examined on oath, and then put them in prison, where they remained while he wrote a Latin letter to the governor of Massachusetts.  To this Mr. Winthrop replied, in the same language, that he would neither maintain the Lynn people in an unjust action, nor suffer them to be injured.  On the reception of this reply, the Dutch governor liberated the men, after they had signed an agreement to leave the place.  They accordingly removed more than eighty miles, to the eastern part of the island, where they purchased land of the Indians, and planted a town, which, in remembrance of the place from which they sailed in England, they called Southampton. 
     Dr. P. S. Townsend, of New York, says, the people of Lynn also settled five other towns on Long Island; Flushing, Gravesend, Jamaica, Hempstead, and Oyster Bay.       
     At the Court, on the thirteenth of May, William Hathorne, Samuel Symonds, and Timothy Tomlins, were appointed to lay out 'the nearest, cheapest, safest, and most convenient way,' between Lynn and Winnisimet ferry.
     Lynn Village, now South Reading, was ordered to be exempted from taxes, as soon as seven houses should be built, and seven families settled.
     William Hathorne and Timothy Tomlins, having been appointed to lay out the bounds of the town of Lynn, made report, on the fourth of June, that they had fixed the bounds at Charlestown line, Reading pond, Ipswich river, and Salem.
     The Court ordered that grain should be received as a lawful payment for debts; Indian corn at 5s., rye at 6s. 8d., and wheat at 7s. a bushel.  The price of a cow was L5.     
     Mr. Richard Sadler was appointed Clerk of the Writs.  The duties of this office were, to fill warrants in civil actions, and to keep a record of births and deaths.  It was legally distinct from the office of Town Clerk, who was at the first called the Town Recorder, though in many instances both offices were held by the same individual.
     Mr. Humfrey's barn at Swampscot, with all his corn and hay, to the value of one hundred and sixty pounds, was burnt by the carelessness of his servant, Henry Stevens, in setting fire to some gunpowder.  At the Court of Assistants, on the first of November, 'Henry Stevens, for firing the barn of his master, Mr. John Humfrey, he was ordered to be servant to Mr. Humfrey, for 21 years from this day, towards recompensing him.'  The Court afterward allowed Mr. Humfrey for his loss and his good services, L250.
     There was one woman in the town at this time, who contended that all things ought to be common, as at one time among the early Christians; but she found it difficult to persuade the people that she had as good a right to their property as themselves.  She went 'from house to house,' helping herself to such little accommodations as she wished, till her demands became so extravagant, that she was brought before the Quarterly Court, at Salem.  On the twenty-ninth of September the following record was made.  'Mary Bowdwell, of Lyn, for her exorbitancy, not working, but liveing idly, and stealing, and taking away other victuals, pretending communitie of all things: The court sentence that she shall be whipped; but throwe their clemency she was only admonished, and respited till next courte." 
      This year a new version of the Psalms was made for public worship.  It was an octavo volume of 400 pages, and was the first book printed in America.  The following is a specimen of the poetry, from Psalm 44.
          Our eares have heard our fathers tell
             and reverently record
          The wondrous workes that thou hast done
             in olden time, O Lord.
          How thou didst cast the Gentiles out
             and stroid them with strong hand;
          planting our fathers in their place
             and gavest to them their land.
          They conquered not by sword nor strength
             the land of thy behest,
          But by thy hand, thy arm, thy grace,
             because thou louedst them best."

     1641.    Lord Say, having an intention of forming a plantation at New Providence, one of the Bahama Islands, had engaged Mr. Humfrey in the design, with the promise of making him governor of the new colony.  Some of the Lynn people had determined to accompany him; but the intention was frustrated, by the island falling, for a time, under the government of Spain.
     Mr. John Humfrey was a native of Dorchester, in Dorsetshire, England, a lawyer, and a man of considerable wealth and good reputation.  He married Susan, the second daughter of Thomas, Earl of Lincoln, and sister of Frances, the wife of Mr. John Gorges, and of Arbella, the wife of Mr. Isaac Johnson.  He was one of the most influential in promoting the settlement of the colony, and the people of Massachusetts will ever regard him as one of their earliest and most efficient benefactors.  He was one of the original patentees of the colony, and the treasurer of the company at Plymouth, in England; and by his exertions many donations were obtained, and many persons, among whom were some of the ministers, were induced to emigrate.  He was chosen Deputy Governor in 1630, and Assistant in 1632, both before his arrival; and such was the respect in which he was held, that when the formulary for the constituting of freemen was in debate, an exception was made in favor of 'the old planters and Mr. Humfrey.'  He arrived at Lynn, in 1634, received several liberal grants from the court, and fixed his residence at Swampscot.  In discharging the duties of an Assistant in the general government, he devoted his time and energies for seven years to the service of the state, and seems not to have been surpassed in devotedness to her welfare.  He became a member of the Artillery Company in 1640; and in June, 1641, was appointed to the command of all the militia in the county, with the title of Sergeant Major General.  But with all his honors and possessions, a shade of dissatisfaction had spread itself over his prospects, which his numerous misfortunes contributed to darken.  The disappointment of the Bahamas must have been severely felt, by a mind so ambitious of honor as his appears to have been; and it is not improbable that he experienced a secret chagrin at seeing the young and uninformed Henry Vane promoted, to the office of governor, above one whose years, knowledge, and services, entitled him to precedence.  It is probable likewise that his affection for his wife, whose hopes were in the land of her nativity, had some influence in determining his conduct.  Living so far removed from the elegant circles in which she had delighted, and having lost the sister who might have been the companion of her solitude, the Lady Susan was weary of the privations of the wilderness, the howling of the wild beasts, and the uncouth manners of the savages, and had become lonely, disconsolate, and homesick.  She who had been the delight of her father's house, and had glittered in all the pride of youth and beauty, in the court of the first monarch in Europe, was now solitary and sad, separated by a wide ocean from her father's home.  The future greatness of America, which was then uncertain and ideal, presented no inducement to her mind to counterbalance the losses which were first to be endured; and the cold and barren wilderness of Swampscot, populated by its few lonely cottages, round which the Indians were roaming by day, and the wolves making their nightly excursions, had nothing lovely to offer to soothe her sorrows or elevate her hopes.  What the misfortunes and disappointments of Mr. Humfrey had begun, her importunities completed.  He sold the principal part of his farm to Lady Moody, and returned to England with his wife, on the twenty-sixth of October.  They were much censured for leaving their children, but their intention of visiting the Bahamas, and the approaching inclemency of the season, rendered it imprudent to take them, and they undoubtedly intended to return or send for them.  That Mr. Humfrey possessed deep sympathies, his letters sufficiently evince; and it would be extremely uncharitable to suppose that the Lady Susan was without the endowments of maternal love.  A woman of high feelings and keen sensibilities, the daughter of an English Earl, and according to Mr. Mather's own account, of 'the best family of any nobleman then in England' - it cannot be supposed that she was destitute of those affections which form the characteristic charm of her sex.  The emotions of the heart are not always regulated by rule, and disappointment sometimes makes sad havoc with the best feelings of our nature.
          'Tis thus with the dreams of the high heaving heart,
          They come but to blaze, and they blaze to depart;
          Their gossamer wings are too thin to abide
          The chilling of sorrow, the burning of pride;
          They come but to brush o'er its young gallant swell,
          Like bright birds over ocean, but never to dwell.
                                                        JOHN NEAL.
     The misfortunes which afterward befel some of the children, inflicted a wound on the heart of the affectionate father, from which he never recovered.  In a letter to Governor Winthrop, dated 4th September, 1646, he says: 'It is true the want of that lost occasion, the loss of all I had in the world, doth, upon rubbings of that irreparable blow, sometimes a little trouble me; but in no respect equal to this, that I see my hopes andl possibilities of ever enjoying those I did or was willing to suffer any thing for, utterly taken away.  But by what intermediate hand soever this has befallen me, whose neglects and unkindness God I hope will mind them for their good, yet I desire to look at his hand for good I doubt not to me, though I do not so fully see which way it may work.  Sir, I thank you, again and again, and that in sincerity, for any fruits of your goodness to me and mine; and for any thing contrary, I bless his name, I labor to forget, and desire him to pardon.'   Mr Humfrey died in 1661, and in the same year, his administrators, Joseph Humfrey and Edmund Batter, claimed the five hundred acres of land 'by a pond of fresh water,' in Lynnfield, which had been given him by the Court.  The character of Mr. Humfrey has been drawn with conciseness by Governor Winthrop, who represents him to have been 'a gentleman of special parts of learning and activity, and a godly man.'  His children were John, Joseph, Theophilus, Ann, Sarah, and Dorcas.  The first married William Palmer, of Ardfinan, Ireland, and afterward the Rev. John Miles, of Swanzey.  I have in my possession a deed signed by her, and sealed with the arms of the house of Lincoln.
     Mr. Humfrey appears to have owned nearly all the lands from Sagamore Hill to Forest river.  His house was near the eastern end of Humfrey's beach, and his place there was called the Swampscot Farm.  His lands were chiefly disposed of in 1681, when his daughter Ann sold ten acres to William Bassett, jr., and twenty acres with a house in Nahant street to Richard Hood.  Robert Ingalls bought nine acres of the farm at Swampscot for two hundred and eighty pounds, and Richard Johnson had sixty acres of salt marsh for thirty pounds.  The wind-mill at Sagamore Hill was valued at sixty pounds.  The whole of Mr. Humfrey's lands, at Swampscot, were about thirteen hundred acres, besides five hundred at Lynnfield.  In 1685, we find that Daniel King, senior, having bought four hundred acres of this land, mortgages the same to widow Elizabeth Curwin of Salem.  He afterward married her, and thus secured it; but in 1690 it was again mortgaged to Benjamin Brown, of Salem.  In 1693, March 20, it was sold by Elizabeth and Daniel King to Walter Phillips and John Phillips, ancestors of the numerous and respectable family of Phillips.  This tract of four hundred acres is mentioned as beginning at the farther end of the beach beyond Fishing Point, and extending to the west end of the Long Pond.  Another description of this same four hundred acres, makes it extend to Beaver Brook, which is the little stream next eastward of Phillips's Pond, and runs out at the bounds between Lynn and Salem.  Henry Mayo bought Fishing Point, which is the point next east of Swampscot, which he sold, March 10, 1696, to Walter Phillips, for one hundred and forty pounds.  Mr. Humfrey's house, and the land adjacent, was bought by Hon. Ebenezer Burrill, in whose family it remained until 1797, when it was bought by Robert Hooper of Marblehead.  In 1842, his daughter Hannah, widow of William Reed, sold it to Enoch ,Redington Mudge of Lynn, who has built, near the old house, a beautiful gothic stone cottage, worthy of the olden time. 
     In the early part of this year, says Governor Winthrop, 'a goodly maid of the church of Linne, going in a deep snow from Meadford homeward, was lost, and some of her clothes found after among the rocks." 
     
     1642.   The winter was exceedingly cold, with deep snow, and the harboe was passable with teams for five weeks.  The Indians said that the weather had not been so cold for forty years.
     A great alarm was occasioned through the colony by a report that the Indians intended to exterminate the English.  The people were ordered to keep a watch from sunset to sunrise, and blacksmiths were directed to suspend all other business till the arms of the colony were repaired.  A house was built for the soldiers, and another, about forty feet long, for a safe retreat for the women and children of the town, in case of an attack from the Indians.  These houses were within the limits of Saugus, about eighty rods from the eastern boundary, and about the same distance south of Walnut street.  The cellars of both these buildings remain, and near them, on the east, is a fine unfailing spring.   
     At the Salem Court,  July 12, 'George Sagamore and Edward, alias Ned,' prosecuted Francis Lightfoot for land.  The case was referred to the Boston court. 
     Governor Dudley, in a letter to his son in England, dated November 28, remarks, 'There is a want of school-masters hereabouts.'
     At the Quarterly Court, December 14, 'The Lady Deborah Moodie, Mrs. King, and the wife of John Tillton , were presented, for houldinge that the baptising of Infants is noe ordinance of God."


This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my permission.

© 2006 Copyright by Shaun Cook