Introduction

     At the time when I began to collect the facts of which the following pages are composed, very little was known of the early history of Lynn.  It had not even been ascertained in what year the town was settled - the records for the first sixty-two years were wholly wanting - and the names of the early settlers were unknown.
     It has been said, that the town records were burnt about the year 1690;  but that they were in existence long after that period, is evident from an order respecting them, on the seventh of March, 1715, when the inhabitants voted; 'that whereas some of the old town records are much shattered, therefore so much shall be transcribed out of one or more of them, into another book, as the selectmen shall think best... and the selectmen having perused two of the old town books, and find that the second book is most shattered, and that the oldest book may be kept fare to reed several years, think it best and order, that soe much shall be transcribed."  A few pages were thus copied, and the books were afterward destroyed or lost.  In my researches, I found several volumes of the old records of births, marriages, and deaths, commencing in 1675, in a very ruinous condition, and caused them to be bound and furnished with an index.  The earliest record of the proceedings of the town, now in existence, commences in the year 1691; and the earliest parish record, in 1722.
     I have examined every attainable source of information, to supply the deficiencies of the lost records.  I have discovered numerous ancient manuscripts; and among them, a copy of three pages of the old town records for 1638, and several in subsequent years, which providentially happened to be the pages most wanted; I have also found a journal, kept daily for forty-four years, by Zaccheus Collins; and another, for twenty years, by Mr. Richard Pratt; in which they appear to have noticed every thing remarkable during those long periods, and from which I have extracted many interesting particulars.  I have transcribed from the records of state and county, as well as from those of town and parish; and from numerous files of unpublished papers.  Indeed I have spared neither labor nor expense to make this history complete.  Not only have numerous volumes concerning early discoveries and settlements in America been consulted, but the manuscript records of parishes in Great Britain, and other European nations, have been explored.  It would have been quite as easy, in most instances, to have conveyed the ideas in my own words; but as I was delighted with the quaintness and simplicity of the original language, I thought that perhaps others might be equally pleased.  Moreover, I like to hear people tell their own stories.  Some historians have strangely distorted facts by changing the language.
     The records and files of our State government furnish much information respecting our early history; but as they existed when I began my researches, a vast amount of patience was requisite to obtain it.  Those papers were then tied up in hundreds of small bundles, and many of them bore the impress of the mob by whom they were trampled, in 1765.  At my suggestion, they have been arranged in volumes and furnished with an index; so that future historians will be spared much labor to which I was subjected.  The papers in other public offices, and particularly those of the Essex Court, at Salem, merit a similar attention.  People yet have too little veneration for their ancestors, and too little love for their country, or it would have been done long ago.  The Massachusetts Historical Society, at Boston, merit unbounded gratitude, for the care with which they have preserved rare historical books and valuable manuscripts.
      I have given the names of more than three hundred of the early settlers, with short sketches of the lives of many.  I have also collected the names of many Indians and their Sagamores, the fragments of whose history have become so interesting .  This is the first attempt, in any town, to collect the names of all the early settlers, with those of the Indians who were contemporary with them.  I trust that no person who is an inhabitant of Lynn, or interested in the details of antiquity, will think that I have been too particular.  A proper attention to dates and minuteness of circumstance, constitutes the charm of history, and the actions and manners of men can never cease to be interesting.    
     There is something so natural in inquiring into the history of those who have lived before us, and particularly of those with whom we have any connection, either by the ties of relation or place, that it is surprising any one should be found by whom the subject is regarded with indifference.  In a government like ours, where every man is required to take part in the management of public affairs, an acquaintance with the past is indispensable to an intelligent discharge of his duties.  The knowledge of history was considered so important by the Monarch Bard of Israel, that he commenced a song of praise for its enjoyment; and the relation in which we are placed cannot render it less important and interesting to us.  To trace the settlement and progress of our native town - to read the history of the play-place of our early hours, and which has been the scene of our maturer joys - to follow the steps of our fathers through the course of centuries, and mark the graduation of improvement - to learn who and what they were from whom we are descended - and still further, to be informed of the people who were here before them, and who are now vanished like a dream of childhood - and all these in their connection with the history of the world and of man - must certainly be objects of peculiar interest to every inquisitive mind.  And though, in the pursuit of these objects, we meet with much that calls forth the tear of sympathy and the expression of regret, we yet derive a high degree of pleasure from being enabled to sit with our fathers in the shade of the oaks and pines of 'olden time' and hear them relate the stories of days which have gone by.  One of the most useful faculties of the mind is the memory; and history enables us to treasure up the memories of those who have lived before us.  What would not any curious mind give to have a complete knowledge of the Indian race? - And what a painful want should we suffer, were the history of our fathers a blank, and we could know no more of them than of the aborigines!  Our existence might indeed be regarded as incomplete, if we could not command the record of past time, as well as enjoy the present, and hope for the happiness of the future!  Reality must ever possess a stronger power over the minds of reasonable and reflecting men, than imagination; and though fiction frequently asserts, and sometimes acquires the ascendancy, it is generally when she appears dressed in the habiliments of probability and historical truth.
     Among the pleasures of the mind, there are few which afford more unalloyed gratification, than that which arises from the remembrance of the loved and familiar objects of home, combined with the memory of the innocent delights of our childhood.  This is one of the few pleasures of which the heart cannot be deprived - which the darkest shades of misfortune serve to bring out into fuller relief - and which the uninterrupted passage of the current of time tends only to polish and to brighten.  When wearied with the tumult of the world, and sick of the anxieties and sorrows of life, the thoughts may return with delight to the pleasures of childhood, and banquet unsated on the recollections of youth.  Who does not remember the companions of his early years - and the mother who watched over his dangers - and the father who counselled him - and the teacher who instructed him - and the sister whose sweet voice reproved his wildness?  Who does not remember the tree under which he played - and the house in which he lived - and even the moonbeam that slept upon his bed!  Who has not returned, in sunlight and in sleep, to the scenes of his earliest and purest joys; and to the green and humble mounds where his sorrows have gone forth over the loved and the lost who were dear to his soul!  And who does not love to indulge these remembrances, though they bring swelling tides to his heart, and tears to his eyes?  And whose ideas are so limited, that he does not extend his thoughts to the days and the dwellings of his ancestors; until he seems to become a portion of the mountain and the stream, and to prolong his existence through the centuries which are passed!  O, the love of home! - it was implanted in the breast of man as a germ of hope, that should grow up into a fragrant flower, to win his heart from the ambitions and the vanities of his life, and woo him back to the innocent delights of his morning hours!  Sweet Spirit of Home! - thou Guardian Angel of the Good - thou earliest, kindest, latest friend of man!  how numerous are thy votaries!  how many are the hearts that bow before thy sway!  What tears of sorrow hast thou dried! - what tears of recollection, of anticipation, of enjoyment, hast thou caused to flow!  To all bosoms thou art grateful - to all climes congenial.  No heart, that is innocent, but has a temple for thee! - no mind, however depraved, but acknowledges the power which presides over thy shrine!
     The advancement of the American colonies has been unparalleled in the annals of the world.  Two hundred years have scarcely circled their luminous flight over this now cultivated region, since the most populous towns of New England were a wilderness!  No sound was heard in the morning but the voice of the Indian, and the notes of the wild birds, as they woke their early hymn to their Creator; and at evening, no praise went up to heaven, but the desolate howl of the wolf, and the sweet but mournful song of the muckawis. [The Indian name of the whip-poor-will.  The sounds which strike the ear of one familiar with the English language like the words whip-poor-will, fell on the tympanum of an Indian like the syllables which compose the word muck-a-wis.]  The wild powah [Powah was the designation of a priest of the red men; and their meetings for the exercise of their rude worship were also denominated powahs.]  of the savage sometimes broke into the silence of nature, like the wailing for the dead; but the prayer of the Christian was never heard to ascend from the melancholy waste.  The mountains, that lifted their sunny tops above the clouds, and the rivers, which for thousands of miles rolled their murmuring waters through the deserts, were unbeheld by an eye which could perceive the true majesty of God, or a heart that could frame language to his praise.  At length the emigrants from England arrived, and the western shore of the Atlantic began to hear the more cheerful voices of civilization and refinement.  Pleasant villages were seen in the midst of the wide wilderness; and houses for the worship of God, and schools for the instruction of children arose, where the wild beast had his lair.  The men of those days were compelled to endure privations, and to overcome difficulties, which exist to us only on the page of history.  In passing through the forest, if they turned from the bear, it was to meet the wolf; and if they fled from the wolf, it was to encounter the deadly spring of the insidious catamount.  At some periods, the planter could not travel from one settlement to another, without the dread of being shot by the silent arrow of the unseen Indian; nor could his children pursue their sports in the shady woods, or gather berries in the green fields, without danger of treading on the coiled rattlesnake, or being carried away by the remorseless enemy.  The little hamlets, and the lonely dwellings, which rose, at long intervals, over the plains and among the forests, were frequently alarmed by the howl of the wolf and the yell of the savage; and often were their thresholds drenched in the blood of the beautiful and the innocent!  The dangers of those days have passed away, with the men who sustained them, and we enjoy the fruit of their industry and peril; they have toiled, and fought, and bled for our repose.  Scarcely a spot of New England can be found, which has not been fertilized by the sweat or the blood of our ancestors.  How grateful should we be to that good Being who bestowed on us the reward of their enterprise!    
     The day on which the Mayflower landed her passengers on the Rock of Plymouth, was a fatal one for the aborigines of America.  From that day, the towns of New England began to spring up among their wigwams, and along their hunting grounds; and though sickness, and want, and the tomahawk made frequent and fearful incursions on the little bands of the planters, yet their numbers continued to increase, till they have become a great and powerful community.  It is indeed a pleasing and interesting employment, to trace the progress of the primitive colonies - for each town was in itself a little colony, a miniature republic, and the history of one is almost the history of all - to behold them contending with the storms and inclemencies of an unfriendly climate, and with the repeated depredations of a hostile and uncivilized people, till we find them emerging into a state of political prosperity, unsurpassed by any nation of the earth.  But it is painful to reflect, that in the accomplishment of this great purpose, the nations of the wilderness, who constituted a separate race, have been nearly destroyed.  At more than one period, the white people seem to have been in danger of extermination by the warlike and exasperated Indians; but in a few years, the independent Sassacus, and the noble Miantonimo, and the princely Pometacom, saw their once populous and powerful nations gradually wasting away and disappearing.  In vain did they sharpen their tomahawks, and point their arrows anew for the breasts of the white men! - in vain did the valiant Wampanoag despatch his trusty warriors two hundred miles across the forest, to invite the Taratines to lend their aid in exterminating the English!  The days of their prosperity had passed away.  The time had come when a great people were to be driven from the place of their nativity - when the long line of Sachems, who had ruled over the wilderness for unknown ages, was to be broken, and their fires extinguished.  Darkness, like that which preceded the light of morning, fell over them; and the sunrise of refinement has dawned upon another people!  The pestilence had destroyed thousands of the bravest of their warriors, and left the remainder feeble and disheartened.  Feuds and dissentions prevailed among their tribes; and though they made frequent depredations upon the defenceless settlements, and burnt many dwellings, and destroyed many lives, yet the emigrants soon became the ascendants in number and in power; and the feeble remnant of the red men, wearied and exhausted by unsuccessful conflicts, relinquished the long possession of their native soil, and retired into the pathless forests of the west.
     Much has been written to free the white people from the charge of aggression, and much to extenuate the implacability of the Indians.  We should be cautious in censuring the conduct of men, through whose energies we have received many of our dearest privileges; and they who condemn the first settlers of New England as destitute of all true principle, err as much as they who laud their conduct with indiscriminate applause.  Passionate opinion and violent action were the general faults of their time; and when they saw that one principle was overstrained in its effect, they scarcely thought themselves safe until they had vacillated to the opposite extreme.  Regarding themselves, like the Israelites, as a peculiar people, they imagined that they had a right, without an immediate warrant from heaven, to destroy the red men as heathen.  The arms which at first they took up with the idea that they were requisite for self-defence, were soon employed in a war of extermination; and the generous mind is grieved to think, that instead of endeavoring to conciliate the Indians by kindness, they should have deemed it expedient to determine their destruction.
     The Indians had undoubtedly good cause to be jealous of the arrival of another people, and in some instances to consider themselves injured by their encroachments.  Their tribes had inhabited the wilderness for ages, and the country was their home.  Here were the scenes of their youthful sports, and here were the graves of their fathers.  Here they had lived and loved, here they had warred and sung, and grown old with the hills and rocks.  Here they had persued the deer - not those formed by clouds, like the poetical creations of Ossian - but the red beutiful, fleet-footed creatures of the wilderness.  Over the glad waters that encircle Nahant, they have bounded in their birch canoes; and in the streams, and along the sandy shore, they had spread their nets to gather the treasures of the deep.  Their daughters did not adjust their locks before pier glasses, nor copy beautiful stanzas into gilt albums; but they saw their graceful forms reflected in the clear waters, and their poetry was written in living characters on the green hills, and the silver beach, and the black rocks of Nahant.  Their brave sachems wore not the glittering epaulets of modern warfare, nor did the eagle banner of white men wave in their ranks; but the untamed eagle of the woods soared over their heads, and beneath their feet was the soil of freemen, which had never been sullied by the foot of a slave!
     The red men were indeed cruel and implacable in their revenge; and if history be true, so have white men been in all ages.  I know of no cruelty practised by Indians, which white men have not exceeded in their refinements of torture.  The delineation of Indian barbarities presents awful pictures of blood; but it should be remembered that those cruelties were committed at a time when the murder of six or eight hundred of the red people, sleeping around their own fires, in the silent repose of night, was deemed a meritorious service!  In resisting to the last, they fought for their country, for freedom, for life - they contended for the safety and happiness of their wives and children; for all that brave and high-minded men can hold dear!  But they were subdued; and the few who were not either killed or made prisoners, sought refuge in the darker recesses of their native woods.  The ocean, in which they had so often bathed their athletic limbs, and the streams which had yielded their bountiful supplies of fish, were abandoned in silent grief; and the free and fearless Indian, who once wandered in all the pride of unsubdued nature, over our fiields and among our forests, was driven from his home, and compelled to look with regret to the shores of the sea, and the pleasant abodes of his youth!
     A few, indeed, continued for some years to linger around the shores of their ancient habitations; but they were like the spirits whom the Bard of Morven has described, "sighing in the wind around the dwellings of their former greatness."  They are gone; and over the greater part of New England the voice of the Indian is heard no more.  That they were originally a noble race, is shown by the grandeur of their language, and by their mellifluous and highly poetical names of places - the yet proud appellations of many of our mountains, lakes, and rivers.  It would have been gratifying to the lover of nature, if all the Indian names of places had been preserved, for they all had a meaning, applicable to scenery or event.  'Change not barbarous names' said the Persian sage, 'for they are given of God, and have inexpressible efficacy.'  The names of Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant remain; and may they continue to remain, the imperishable memorials of a race which has long since passed away.
     In contemplating the destruction of a great people, the reflecting mind is naturally disposed to inquire into the causes of their decay, in order to educe motives for a better conduct, that their wrongs may be in some degree repaired, and a similar fate avoided.  If dissension weakened the power of the tribes of tthe forest, why should it not impair the energies of our free States?  If the red men have fallen through the neglect of moral and religious improvement, to make way for a more refined state of society, and the emanations of a purer worship, how great is the reason to fear that we also may be suffered to wander in our own ways, because we will not know the ways of God, and to fall into doubt, disunion, and strife, till our country shall be given to others, as it has been given to us.  He who took the sceptre from the most illustrious and powerful of ancient nations, and caused the tide of their prosperity and refinement to flow back and stagnate in the pools of ignorance, obscurity, and servitude, possesses ample means to humble the pride of any nation, when it shall cease to be guided by his counsels.  Already have evils of the most alarming consequences passed far on their march of desolation.  Already has the Spirit of Discord, with his dark shadow, dimmed the brightness of our great council fire!  Already has the the fondness for strong drink seized on thousands of our people, bringing the young to untimely graves, sapping the foundations of health and moral excellence, and pulling down the glory of our country.  Already has a disregard for the Sabbath, and for divine institutions, begun openly to manifest itself; the concomitant of infidelity, and the harbinger of spiritual ruin.  If we may trust the appearances in our western regions, our land was once inhabited by civiized men, who must have disapeared long before the arrival of our fathers.  May Heaven avert their destiny from us, to evince to the world how virtuous a people may be, on whom the blessing of civil liberty has fallen as an inheritance.
     The political system of our nation is probably the best which was ever devised by man for the common good; but it practically embraces one evil too obvious to be disregarded.  While it advances the principle that all men have by nature the same civil rights, it retains, with strange inconsistency, one sixth of the whole population in aa state of abject bodily and mental servitude.  On its own principles, our government has no right to enslave any portion of its subjects; and I am constrained, in the name of God and truth to say, that they must be free.  Christianity and political expediency both demand their emancipation, nor will they always remain unheard.  Many generous minds are already convinced of the importance of attention to this subject; and many more might speak in its behalf, in places where they could not be disregarded.  Where are the ministers of our holy religion, that their prayers are not preferred for the liberation and enlightenment of men with souls as immoratal as their own?  Where are the senators and representatives of our free States, that their voicec are not heard in behalf of that most injured race?  Let all who have talents, and pwer, and influence, exert them to free the slaves from their wrongs, and raise them to the rank and privileges of men.  That the black people possess mental powers capable of extensive cultivation, has been sufficiently evinced; and the period may arrive when the lights of freedom and science shall shine much more extensively on these dark children of bondage - when the knowledge of the true faith shall awaken the nobler principles of their minds, and its practice place them in moral excellence far above those who are now trampling them in the dust.  How will the spirit of regret then sadden over the brightness of our country's fame, when the muse of History shall lead their pens to trace the annals of their ancestors, and the inspiration of Poetry instruct their youthful bards to sing the oppression of their fathers in the land of Freedom!
     I trust the time will come, when on the annals of our country shall be inscribed the abolition of slavery - when the inhuman cutom of war shall be viewed with abhorrence - when humanity shall no longer be outraged by the exhibition of capital punishments - when the one great principle of love shall pervade all classes - when the poor shall be furnished with employment and ample remuneration - when men shall unite their exertions for the promotion of those plans which embrace the welfare of the whole - that the unqualified approbation of Heaven may be secured to our country, and ' that glory may dwell in our land.'
     In delineating the annals of a single town, it can scarcely be expected that so good an oppurtunity will be afforded for variety of description and diffusiveness of remark, as in a work of a more general nature.  It is also proper to observe, that this compilation was begun without any view to publication; but simply to gratify that natural curiousity which must arise in the mind of every one who extends his thoughts beyond the persons and incidents which immediately surround him.  I may, however, be permitted to hope, that an attempt to delineate with accuracy the principal events which have transpired within my native town, for the space of two hundred years, will be interesting to many, though presented without any endeavor to adorn them with the graces of artificial ornament.  My endeavor has been to ascertain facts, and to state them correctly.  I have preferred the form of annals for a local history; for thus everything is found in its time and place.  The labor and expense of making so small a book has been immense, and can never be appreciated by the reader, until he shall undertake to write a faithful history of one of our early towns, after its records have been lost.  I could have written many volumes of romance or of general history, while preparing this volume; and I have endeavoured to make it so complete, as to leave little for those who come after me, except to continue the work.
     It should be remembered, that previous to the change of style, in 1752, the year began in March; consequently February was the twelfth month.  Ten days also are to be added to the date in the sixteenth century, and eleven in the seventeenth, to bring the dates to the present style.  Thus, '12 mo. 25, 1629,' instead of being Christmas day, as some might suppose, would be March 8th, 1630.  In the following pages, I have corrected the years and months, excepting when they are marked in quotations; but I have left the days untouched.
     I have the genealogies of many of the early settlers, complete to the present time; but to publish them all, would require another volume.  The descendants of such, who are desirous of preserving their lineage, can have the lists of their ancestors by application to me.
     The history of Nahant is so intimately conected with that of the town, that I have continued them together; but by referring to the index, the reader may readily trace out all which relates to that celebrated watering place.  A topographical, historical, and geological Map of Lynn and Nahant, has been prepared from my own survey, which will be immediately published.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Alonzo Lewis