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This page is a part of the Lynn & Nahant town site. Not for
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"The History of Lynn including Nahant"
by Alonzo Lewis, - The Lynn
Bard
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Transcribed and submitted by Shaun Cook | To help transcribe or
submit information, pleasee-mail Shaun
Cook. |
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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. |
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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.
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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."
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