preceding,—the permanent, substantial yeomanry with no capital but
their sturdy industry, doing hard work with their strong arms, and
striking the roots of the settlement down deep into the soil by mixing
their own labor with it. A glance at the map will be useful, at this
point, showing the general direction by which the farming population
advanced to the interior. All between the North and Cow House Rivers
was, as now, called North Fields, and is still for the most part a
farming territory. All north of Cow House River, westwardly to Reading
and eastwardly to the sea, was originally known as the "Farms" or
"Salem Farms." When the First Beverly Parish was set off in 1667, it
took from the "Farms" all east of Bass River. As Topsfield and other
townships were established, they were more or less encroached upon. The
"Farmers" as they were called, although unorganized, regarded
themselves as one community, having a common interest. The tide of
settlement flowed up the rivers and brooks, sought out the meadows, and
was drawn into the valleys among the hills.
John Porter, called "Farmer Porter," came with[i.137] his sons from
Hingham, and bought up lands to the north of Duck or Crane River. His
family before long held among them more land, it is probable, than any
other. He served many years as deputy in the General Court, first from
Hingham and then from Salem. He is spoken of in the colonial records of
Massachusetts as "of good repute for piety, integrity, and estate." The
Barneys, Leaches, and others went eastwardly towards Bass River. The
Putnams followed up Beaver Brook to Beaver Dam, and spread out towards
the north and west; while Richard Hutchinson turned southerly to the
interval between Whipple and Hathorne Hills, bought the Stileman grant,
and cleared the beautiful meadows where the old village meeting-house
afterwards stood. He was a vigorous and intelligent agriculturist, and
a man of character. He died in 1681, at eighty years of age, leaving a
large and well-improved estate. His will has this item: I give "five
acres of land to Black Peter, my servant." He had given fine farms to
his children severally, many years before his death. His second wife,
who survived him, had no children. He had come by her into possession
of a valuable addition to his estate. After distributing his property,
and providing legacies for children and grandchildren, his will left it
to the option of his widow to spend the residue of her days either in
the family of his son Joseph, or elsewhere; if she should prefer to
live elsewhere, then she should receive back, in her own right, all the
property she had originally owned; if she continued[i.138] to live to
her death in Joseph's family, then her property was to go to him and
his heirs. This, I think, shows that he was as sagacious as he was
just.
Richard Ingersoll came from Bedfordshire in England in 1629, bringing
letters of recommendation from Matthew Cradock to Governor Endicott.
After living awhile in town, a tract of land of eighty acres was
granted to him, on the east side of Wooleston River, opposite the site
of Danversport, at a place called, after him, Ingersoll's Point. He
there proceeded to clear and break ground, plant corn, fence in his
land, and make other improvements. He also carried on a fishery.
Subsequently he leased the Townsend Bishop farm, where he lived several
years. He died in 1644. Not long before his death, he purchased,
jointly with his son-in-law Haynes, the Weston grant. His half of it he
bequeathed to his son Nathaniel. He was evidently a man of real dignity
and worth, enjoying the friendship of the best men of his day. Governor
Endicott and Townsend Bishop were with him in his last sickness, and
witnesses to his will. His widow married John Knight of Newbury. In a
legal instrument filed among the papers connected with a case of land
title, dated twenty-seven years after her first husband's death, she
expresses in very striking language the tender affection and respect
with which she still cherished his memory.
William Haynes married Sarah, daughter of Richard Ingersoll, and
occupied his half of the Weston grant. In company with his brother,
Richard Haynes, he[i.139] had before bought of Townsend Bishop five
hundred and forty acres, covering a considerable part of the northern
end of the village territory. They sold one-third part of it to Abraham
Page. Page sold to Simon Bradstreet, and John Porter bought all the
three parts from the Hayneses and Bradstreet. It long constituted a
portion of the great landed property of the Porter family. These facts
show that William Haynes was a person of means; and the manner in which
he is uniformly spoken of proves that he was regarded with singular
respect and esteem. He died about 1650, and his son Thomas became
subsequently a leading man in the village.
There has been uncertainty where William Haynes came from, or to what
family of the name he belonged. Among the papers of the Ingersoll
family, it has recently been found that he is mentioned as "brother to
Lieutenant-Governor Haynes." There seems to be no other person to whom
this language can refer than John Haynes, who, after being Governor of
Massachusetts, removed to Connecticut where he was governor and
deputy-governor, in alternate years, to the day of his death. John
Haynes, as Winthrop informs us, was a gentleman of "great estate." His
property in England is stated to have yielded a thousand pounds per
annum. Dr. Palfrey says he was "a man of family as well as fortune; and
the dignified and courteous manners, which testified to the care
bestowed on his early nurture, won popularity by their graciousness, at
the same time that they diffused a refining[i.140] influence by their
example." If William of the village was brother to John of Connecticut,
the fact that he and his brother Richard could make such large
purchases of lands, and the remarkable respect manifested towards him,
are well accounted for. The Ingersoll family traditions and entries
would seem to be the highest authority on such a point.
Job Swinnerton was a brother of John who for many years was the
principal physician in the town of Salem. He had several grants of
land, and was a worthy, peaceable, unobtrusive citizen. He seems to
have kept out of the heat of the various contentions that occurred in
the village; and, although his influence was sometimes decisively put
forth, he evidently did nothing to aggravate them. He died April 11,
1689, over eighty-eight years of age. He had a large family, and his
descendants continue the name in the village to this day. Daniel Rea
came originally to Plymouth, and in 1630 bought a dwelling-house,
garden, and "all the privileges thereunto belonging," in that town. In
1632 he removed to Salem, and at once became a leading man in the
management of town affairs. He had a grant of one hundred and sixty
acres, which he occupied and cultivated till his death in 1662. He had
but two children: one, the wife of Captain Lothrop; the other, Joshua
Rea, became the founder of a large family who acted conspicuously in
the affairs of the village for several generations. Jacob Barney was an
original grantee, and for several years a deputy. His son of[i.141] the
same name became a large landholder, and, on the 5th of April, 1692, at
the very moment when the witchcraft delusion was at its height, gave
two acres conveniently situated for the erection of a schoolhouse. He
conveyed it to inhabitants of the neighborhood to be used for that
purpose, mentioning them severally by name. I give the list, as it
shows who were the principal people thereabouts at the time: "Mr.
Israel Porter; Sergeant John Leach; Cornet Nathaniel Howard, Sr.;
Corporal Joseph Herrick, Sr.; Benjamin Porter; Joshua Rea, Sr.; Thomas
Raymond, Sr.; Edward Bishop, _secundus_; John Trask, Jr.; John Creesy;
Joshua Rea, Jr.; John Rea; John Flint, Sr." Lawrence Leach received a
grant of one hundred acres; and others of the same name and family had
similar evidence that they were regarded as valuable accessions to the
population. William Dodge and Richard Raymond had grants of sixty acres
each; Humphrey and William Woodbury had forty each. The families of
Leach, Raymond, Dodge, and Woodbury, still remain in the community of
which their ancestors were the founders. John Sibley had a grant of
fifty acres. Robert Goodell was a grantee, and became a large
landholder.
The descendants of the two last-named persons are very numerous, and
have maintained the respectability of their family names. They are
each, at this day, represented by gentlemen whose enthusiastic interest
in our antiquities is proved by their invaluable labors and
acquisitions in the interesting depart[i.142]ments of genealogy and
local history,—John L. Sibley, Librarian of Harvard University; and
Abner C. Goodell, Register of Probate for the County of Essex.
Besides Townsend Bishop, there were two other persons of that name
among the original inhabitants of Salem. They do not appear to have
been related to him or to each other. Richard Bishop, whose wife
Dulcibell had died Aug. 6, 1658, married the widow Galt, July 22, 1660.
He died Dec. 30, 1674.
Edward Bishop was in Salem in 1639, and became a member of the church
in 1645. In 1660 he was one of the constables of Salem, an original
member of the Beverly Church in 1667, and died in January, 1695. He was
an early settler on the Farms; his lands were on both sides of Bass
River, the parcels on the west side being above and below the Ipswich
road. His own residence was on the Beverly side; and he was not usually
connected with the concerns of the village. His name appears but once
in the witchcraft proceedings, and then in favor of an accused person.
Edward Bishop, commonly called "the sawyer," from the tenor of
conveyances of land, dates, and other evidences, appears to have been a
son of the preceding. In his earlier life, he was somewhat notable for
irregularities and aberrations of conduct. With his wife Hannah, he was
fined by the local court, in 1653, for depredating upon the premises of
his neighbors. During the subsequent period of his history, he
bore[i.143] the character of an industrious and reputable person. At
some time previous to 1680, he married Bridget, widow of Thomas Oliver.
On the 9th of March, 1693, he married Elizabeth Cash. He lived
originally in Beverly; afterwards, at different times, on the land
belonging to his father in Salem Village,—the estate he occupied being
on both sides of the Ipswich road. His last years were passed in the
town of Salem. He died in 1705. His daughter Hannah, born in 1646,
became the wife of Captain William Raymond, one of the founders of the
numerous family of that name.
Edward Bishop, son of the preceding, called, for distinction,
"husbandman," was born in 1648. He married Sarah, daughter of William
Wilds, of Ipswich. He was a respectable person, and lived in the
village on an estate also occupied by "the sawyer." His house was west
of the avenue leading to Cherry Hill. In 1703 he removed to Rehoboth.
Edward Bishop, the eldest of his sons, married Susanna, daughter of
John Putnam, and in 1713 removed to that part of Ipswich now Hamilton.
Prior to 1695, these four Edward Bishops were all living; and the
youngest had a wife and children. All will be found connected with our
story, the second and third prominently. The fourth owed his safety,
perhaps, to the influential connections of his wife.
The first notice we have of Bray Wilkins is in the Massachusetts
colonial records, Sept. 6, 1638, when he was authorized to set up a
house and keep a ferry at Neponset River, and have "a penny a person."
On[i.144] the 5th of November, 1639, the General Court accepted a
report made by William Hathorne and Richard Davenport, commissioners
appointed for the purpose, and, in accordance therewith, laid out a
farm for Richard Bellingham, who had been deputy-governor, was then an
assistant, and afterwards governor, "on the head of Salem, to the
north-west of the town; there being in it a hill, and an Indian
plantation, and a pond." This nice little farm included seven hundred
acres, and "about one hundred or one hundred and fifty acres of meadow"
beside. The next thing we hear about the matter is a petition to the
General Court, May 22, 1661, of "Bray Wilkins and John Gingle, humbly
desiring that the farm called by the name of Will's Hill, which this
Court granted to the worshipful Richard Bellingham, Esq., and they
purchased of him, may be laid to, and appointed to belong to, Salem;
being nigh its lands, and the petitioners of its society." The Court
granted the request. It seems that, about a year before, on the 9th of
March, "Bray Wilkins, husbandman, and John Gingle, tailor, both of
Lynn," had bought the Bellingham farm for two hundred and fifty pounds,
of which they paid at the time twenty-five pounds, and mortgaged it
back for the residue. The twenty-five pounds was paid as follows:
twenty-four pounds in a ton of bar-iron, and one pound in money.
Wilkins had, some time before, removed from Neponset, and perhaps had
been working in one of the iron-manufactories then in operation at
Lynn. When the balance of his wages over his[i.145] expenses enabled
him, with the aid of Gingle, to raise a ton of iron and scrape together
twenty shillings, they entered upon their bold undertaking. He had not
a dollar in his pocket; but he had what was better than
dollars,—industrious habits, a resolute will, a strong constitution, an
iron frame, and six stout sons. After a while, he took into the work,
in addition to his own effective family force, two trusty kinsmen,
Aaron Way and William Ireland, conveying to them good farms out of his
seven hundred acres. He enlarged his farm, from time to time, by new
purchases, so as to more than make up for what he sold to Way and
Ireland. In 1676 the mortgage was fully discharged. He and his sons
bought out the heirs of Gingle, and the work was done. They held, free
from debt, in one tract, a territory about two miles in length on the
Reading line. Each member of the family had a house, barns, orchards,
gardens, meadows, upland, and woodland; and the homestead of the old
patriarch was in the midst of them, the enterprise of his laborious
life crowned with complete success. The innumerable family of the name,
scattered all over the country, has largely, if not wholly, been
derived from this source. Bray Wilkins, and the members of his
household in all its branches, were always on hand at parish meetings
in Salem Village. Over a distance, as their route must have been, of
five miles, they came, in all seasons and all weathers, by the roughest
roads, and, in the earlier period, where there were no roads at all,
through the woods, fording streams, to[i.146] meeting on the Lord's
Day. He continued vigorous, hale, and active to the last; and died, as
he truly characterizes himself in his will, "an ancient," Jan. 1, 1702,
at the age of ninety-two.
This was the way in which the large grants made to wealthy and eminent
persons, governors, deputy-governors, and assistants, came into the
possession and under the productive labor of a yeomanry who made good
their title to the soil by the force of their characters and the
strength of their muscles. One of the terms of Wilkins's purchase was,
that, if he found and wrought minerals on the land, he was to pay to
Bellingham or his heirs a royalty of ten pounds per annum. Believing
that the best mine to be found in land is the crops that can be raised
from it, he never tried to find any other.
Bray Wilkins will appear to have shared in the witchcraft delusion, and
been very unhappily connected with it; but he lived to behold its
termination, and to participate in the restoration of reason. The
minister of the parish at the time of his death, the Rev. Joseph Green,
kept a diary which has been preserved. He thus speaks of the old man:
"He lived to a good old age, and saw his children's children, and their
children, and peace upon our little Israel."
It is rather curious to notice such indications as the mineral clause
in Wilkins's deed affords of the prevalent expectation, at the
beginning of settlements in this region, that valuable minerals would
be found in it. What makes it worthy of particular inquiry is, that
they[i.147] were found and wrought for some time, but that no one
thinks of looking after them now. Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Dennison,
and John Putnam put up and carried on together, upon a large scale,
iron-works, in 1674, at Rowley Village, now Boxford. Samuel and Nathan
Leonard were employed to construct them, and carried them on by
contract. These iron-works were long regarded as a promising enterprise
and valuable investment. The Leonards were probably of the same family
that, at Raynham and the neighborhood, engaged in this business to a
great extent, and for a long period, making it a source of wealth and
the foundation of eminent families. We know that the business was
carried on extensively in Lynn, and that Governor Endicott was quite
sure that he had found copper on his Orchard Farm. Who knows but that
modern science and more searching methods of detection may yet discover
the hidden treasures of which the fathers caught a glimpse, and their
enterprises be revived and conducted with permanent energy and success?
In 1669, Joseph Houlton testified, that, when he was about twenty years
of age, in 1641, he was "a servant to Richard Ingersoll," and worked on
his land at Ingersoll's Point. About the year 1652, he married Sarah,
daughter of Richard Ingersoll, and widow of William Haynes. By her he
had five sons and two daughters, who lived to maturity. He gave to each
of them a farm; and their houses were in his near neighborhood. The
sons were respectable and substantial[i.148] citizens, and persons of
just views and amiable sentiments. The father was one of the honored
heads of the village, and lived to a good old age. He died May 30,
1705. From him, it is probable, all of the name in this country have
sprung. It will be for ever preserved in the public annals and on the
geographical face of the country. Samuel Houlton, great-grandson of the
original Joseph, was a representative of Massachusetts for ten years in
the old Congress of the Confederation, for a time presiding over its
deliberations. He was also a member of the first Congress under the
Constitution, and subsequently, for a very long period, Judge of
Probate for the county of Essex. He was a true patriot and wise
legislator; enjoyed to an extraordinary degree the confidence and love
of the people; had a commanding person and a noble and venerable
aspect; and was always conspicuous by the dignity and courtesy of his
manners. He was a physician by profession; but his whole life was spent
in the public service. He was in both branches of the Legislature of
the State, also in the Executive Council. He was major of the Essex
regiment at the opening of the Revolution; was a member of the
Committee of Safety, and of every convention for the framing of the
Government; and, for more than thirty years, a judge of the Court of
Common Pleas. He died, where he was born and had his home for the
greater part of his life, in Salem Village, Jan. 2, 1816, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age.
In 1724 a petition was presented to the Legislature,[i.149] commencing
as follows: "Whereas Salem is a most ancient town of Massachusetts
Province, and very much straitened for land," the petitioners pray for
a grant in the western part of the province. The petition was allowed
on condition that one lot be reserved for the first settled minister,
one for the ministry, and one for a school. Each grantee was required
to give a bond of twenty-five pounds to be on the spot; have a house of
seven feet stud and eighteen square at least, seven acres of English
hay ready to be mowed, and help to build a meeting-house and settle a
minister, within five years. A grandson of Joseph Houlton, of the same
name, led the company that emigrated to the assigned location. The
first result was the town of New Salem, in Franklin County,
incorporated in 1753; named in honor of the old town from which their
leading founder had come. But the people were not satisfied with having
merely a school. They must have an academy. They went to work with a
will, and an academy was established and incorporated in 1795. This was
the second result. The academy did not flourish to an extent to suit
their views, and they beset the Legislature to grant them a township of
land in the woods of Maine to enable them to endow it. They carried
their point, and in 1797 obtained the grant. The effort had been great,
and great was the rejoicing at its successful issue. But, as bad luck
would have it, just at that time land could not be sold at any price.
The grant became worthless; and deep and bitter was the disappointment
of the people of[i.150] New Salem. The doom of the academy seemed to be
settled, and its days numbered and finished. But there were men in New
Salem who were determined that the academy should be saved. They met in
consultation, and, under the lead of still another Joseph Houlton, of
the same descent, fixed their purpose. They sold or mortgaged their
farms, which more than half a century of labor had rendered productive,
and which every association and every sentiment rendered dear to them.
With the money thus raised they bought the granted tract, paying a good
price for it. The preservation and endowment of the academy were thus
secured; but all benefit from it to themselves or their descendants was
wholly relinquished. It was the only way in which the academy could be
saved. Some must make the sacrifice, and they made it. They packed up
bag and baggage; sold off all they could not carry; gathered their
families together; bid farewell to the scenes of their birth and
childhood, the homes of their life, and the fruits of their labor; and
started in wagons and carts on the journey to Boston. Their location
was hundreds of miles distant, far down in the eastern wilderness, and
inaccessible from the extremes of settlement at that time on the
Penobscot. As the only alternative, they embarked in a coasting-vessel;
went down the Bay of Fundy to St. John, N.B.; took a river-sloop up to
Fredericton,—a hundred miles; got up the river as they could, in barges
or canoes, eighty miles further to Woodstock; and there, turning to the
left, struck[i.151] into the forest, until they reached their location.
The third result of this emigration, in successive generations and
stages, from Salem Farms, is to be seen to-day in a handsome and
flourishing village, interspersed and surrounded with well-cultivated
fields,—the shire town of the county of Aroostook, in the State of
Maine; which bears the name of the leader of this disinterested,
self-sacrificing, and noble company. Three times was it the lot of this
one family to encounter and conquer the difficulties, endure and
triumph over the privations, and carry through the herculean labors, of
subduing a rugged wilderness, and bringing it into the domain of
civilization,—at Salem Village, New Salem, and Houlton. It would be
difficult to find, in all our history, a story that more strikingly
than this illustrates the elements of the glory and strength of New
England,—zeal for education,—enterprise invigorated by
difficulties,—and prowess equal to all emergencies.